Worth
by Sir Ben Evans IV of Kanto
Summary: In this world, what is truly fighting for? Success? Friendship? Frankly, Noah would disagree. To him, nothing is worthwhile - or at least that's what he thought. As the All Stars season begins, the former losers are stuck at the Playa De Losers, which does sound bad for Noah, who plans on hiding away in his room during the season, but maybe there are things better than isolation.
1. A Prologue of Sorts?

**Yes! First chapter is done! *cheers***

 **Alright, so this took maybe a day to write, which is good, right? That means that updates should be frequent, but knowing myself… I say one day to write because I spent about a week researching the characters before writing anything down. I'm** _ **way**_ **too paranoid that I've screwed up the characters. Especially Noah.**

 **So this occurs during the All Stars season of Total Drama. Why? Because I'm waiting for my Netflix account to Pahkitew Island and I have nearly all of the episodes up to the season finale in All Stars (quite sad when you think about it). I am trying to watch the Ridonculous Race, but I don't know...I only looked it up because I found out Noah was on a team with Owen in it, and yes, while I was giddy and fanboying when saw him scream like a little girl as Owen nearly let him fly off a skyscraper in the first episode, I'm not sure if I'll actually watch the whole season online, as this is the same reason is why I won't watch Pahkitew Island online, is because new characters tend to annoy me. I get attached to the originals and dislike anything new that creators give me. It took me forever to tolerate Sierra and I'm still not sure about Alejandro. And the cast for Return of the Island..I'm working on it. So if I watch the new season online, it's all for Noah.**

* * *

 **Disclaimer? Oh no, I obviously don't need one since it's very apparent that I own Total Drama, a Canadian television show, *puts on a redneck accent* when I'm one hundred percent American! *coughs* No, sorry, that was sarcasm. I don't own anything.**

* * *

God, he was sore.

His back ached and he drowsily laid on the carpeted floor, a thick, itchy blanket covering his face. Shifting in discomfort, an annoyed groan rumbled in his throat. Why did he even need to get up? Couldn't he just stay here and sleep?

No, he had better things to do and he knew that. So he yawned, but something was stuck in his mouth precariously. His eyes shot open and his hand went to toss the blanket from his face.

What the heck?

He scowled as he pulled out his headset from his mouth, the speaker bit covered in drool from being in his mouth all night. How had that gotten there? Then he remembered-he was up all night playing Kosmic Kaos with his Underground Alliance friends online.

Sitting up, he saw his television screen flicker a code-"Source not found." Great. Just great. At some point during his slumber, he had lost his connection. Probably when the alliance needed his most, too. That was going to hard to explain later. He was stiff and his head hurt-he could stay in his room today. No one would notice his absence. He could play his video games in peace.

Speaking of which, where is his controller? He glanced around, his eyes narrowed in mild concern until he leaned on arm. There...there was something shoved up his sweater vest. With a tentative hand, he pulled out a black controller from the inside of his shirt. Had he really slept with that all night? And where was his undershirt? His chest was completely bare albeit his vest. Odd.

Pressing a few buttons, he turned off the game system via his controller and sighed. He didn't want to get up, but he was hungry. He hadn't eaten since yesterday during breakfast. He was too busy playing his game. So he stood up, nearly falling back down when he duly noted his left leg was asleep.

What time was it? He couldn't see daylight through the dark curtains he had put up-all better to play video game all day with-and the digital clock next to his bed was displaying an incorrect time. The power must have gone out sometime last night. Which would explain why he lost his signal in Kosmic Kaos.

Still, he stumbled to the door. He almost considered taking the time to comb his hair or change clothes, but decided against it. He was just going down for food. Then he would be back in his room, playing video games while no one was the wiser. It was probably somewhere around five in the morning anyway. No one should be awake yet.

As he shuffled down the lit hallway, he realized he was only wearing one shoe on his foot. His other was barefoot. Yet the shoed foot had no sock on it. He almost rolled his eyes at himself-his sleeping patterns amazed even him. He didn't go back to his room to retrieve the other shoe though. That would be extra work. All he needed to do was get an apple and he would be back to the comforting darkness of his room.

He must be going insane-he swore he could hear voices coming from down the hall in the cafeteria. No, he must be imagining it. It was too early for the other losers here to be awake yet.

So he entered the cafeteria without any doubts, which he assume must be only from his delusional half-awake state. Otherwise he would never had allowed himself to get in this predicament. As he entered the buffet line, he heard soft laughter behind him. His bangs shaded his vision, making it hard for him view the selection, but he still managed to snatch an apple before turning to see nearly all of the resort's losers at the cafeteria tables as they ate breakfast.

"Noah!" a voice called to his left, filled with amusement. He squared his shoulders and walked indignantly to where a large blonde boy was sitting beside a mountain of food piled on a tiny tray.

The boy glanced at him, then back at his food. But then he frowned and did a double-take, "Little buddy?"

"Yeah, Owen?" he sighed, biting into his apple.

"You okay?" Owen scrunched his eyebrows in confusion. Go figure. Owen wasn't exactly the smartest one at the Playa De Losers, otherwise he would be competing on the All-Stars season that Chris was talking about. Then again, Noah wasn't competing either and he was intelligent.

"Fine, honey." he replied darkly, trying to shut down the conversation quickly. He just needed to finish this apple and he would could go back up to his room. He didn't need to make small talk. It was unnecessary and illogical.

"Hey, Noah," a smooth voice chuckled, and Justin sat in the chair next to him. He took his hand to flip his hair before trying to hand Noah a small mirror. "Get dressed in the dark this morning?"

Noah glared at him, not bothering to accept the mirror. He could see his reflection from here. A smirk twisted onto his mouth-he looked awful. His hair was matted and dark bags were under his eyes. His shoulders seemed boney and worthless now that they were bare and he seemed completely disheveled, a small patch of facial hair growing on his chin and upper lip from not shaving in several days-something that occurred when he was too busy to leave the sanctuary of his room. Still, he let his smirk become more devious as he looked at Justin, "Yes, as a matter of fact, I did."

Justin cocked his brow suspiciously as Noah glanced him over, adding thoughtfully, "But what's your excuse?"

"I look amazing!" Justin scoffed, shoving the mirror into his pocket. "You're just jealous."

"Of course. I _must_ be jealous of the equivalent to human bait," he hummed, his voice dripping with sarcasm. With a quick look around the cafeteria, he saw Katie and Sadie sitting alone at a table, staring dreamily at Justin. "Shouldn't you be with your fan club?"

"What? Are you already tiring of my presence?" Justin stood up, flexing his muscles. "That's alright-I'm so overwhelming that it's only natural."

As he left, Noah rolled his eyes at his over-confident idiocy and muttered under his breath, "Schmuck."

"He's hot, isn't he?" Owen grinned at Justin, stopping momentarily from shoveling food down to see Justin sit down next to Sadie and Katie.

"If you like that sort of thing," Noah shrugged, giving Owen a weird look as he took another bite of his apple. "You know-big egos and such."

Owen snickered at something, taking a huge mouthful of bacon and Noah gave an irritated sigh, "What?"

The larger boy smiled down at him, "Nothing, Little Buddy."

" _Whatever,_ " Noah shook his head, taking in the room as he noted that all losers were accounted for.

Across the room, Eva was scowling next to Brick, yelling at Ezekiel for being _chauvinistic_. As she slammed her fist angrily on the table, Ezekiel replied something stupid, causing a pained wince from Brick as Eva continued to rant.

The table next to them had Leshawna, Harold, Cody, and Trent. Trent was pointing to a notebook covered in writing as he spoke avidly with Cody, who seemed lost in the conversation as Harold tried to flirt oh so smoothly with Leshawna by speaking in Japanese. Who did that? Trying to win someone's affection by talking in a foreign language was absurd-no, doing anything to win someone's affection was a absurd. Or at least that was Noah firmly believed.

Those kids from the last season were sitting at a table without Brick, awkwardly glancing at the rest of the losers. Noah had trouble keeping track of their names-why should he care about a bunch of nobodies? Still, a girl with too much makeup on her face named was nodding in a daze as she reapplied eyeliner as a shorter girl rambled on about her family. Anne Maria and Staci, presumably. A tiny girl was sitting with her legs crossed on the table-how unsanitary-as she mumbled things about arua next to a large boy that shyly nodded while he sat next to a giant mutated girl that was staring lovingly at a half-eaten photograph. Dawn, B, and Dakota, respectively.

And then there was Geoff and Bridgette making out yet again a the table next to himself and Owen. God, didn't they have any restraints? Next to them, Tyler awkwardly nibbled on a piece of bacon, trying desperately to block out the people sitting next to him.

Through a small window, Noah could see into the kitchen-DJ and Beth were mixing something in a rather large bowl as the resort's chefs bustled around to start making lunch for everyone.

He nodded, finishing his apple. Note to self: Never leave the room without getting dressed, no matter how draining it seems or what time of day one presumes it is. It would surely save him embarrassment later to keep this in mind.

That left Lindsay, Heather, Duncan, Sierra, Alejandro, Courtney, Gwen, and bunch of the new contestants competing for All Stars. Lightning, Jo, Sam, Cameron, Scott, Zoey, and Mike. Not that he cared. In fact, he was annoyed by this season. For extra episodes, Chris had forced the "peanut gallery"-i.e. them, to stay at the Playa De Losers during the All Stars season-yet the season hadn't even started yet. If Noah's calculations were correct, and they always were, the filming wouldn't start until tomorrow so next episode wouldn't be finished until the day after.

No. Noah was forgetting someone. But who?

"Owen!" a bubbly voice yelled and someone jumped onto their table, nearly knocking down Owen's pile of food. Izzy. Of course. How could he forget? She grinned maniacally at them, her eyes glittering in something that almost worried Noah. Almost. As if he was going to worry about a nut, even she was one of his better acquaintances.

"Iz-Erm, E-Scope!" Owen smiled, trying to keep his food from falling on the floor.

Noah simply nodded, acknowledging her existence as he studied the apple core. Going back up to his room meant having to walk all the way-

"Hey!" Izzy frowned, bending over to glare at Noah suspiciously. "Who are you?"

He scoffed, was she serious? Slowly, he replied, "What do you mean?"

"You seem familiar, but," Izzy jumped off the table, landing softly next to him. She peered at him, poking his cheek. Suddenly, her eyes widened as she shouted all too loudly, "Noah?! You look awful!"

"So I've been told." he turned away from her, annoyed as people began staring at him again. Didn't they have anything better to do than stare at him? He wasn't that interesting-God, even Geoff and Bridgette had stopped kissing to look at him! What was this world coming to?

He scanned the room as people ducked their gazes upon him as he looked, pathetically attempting to hide the fact that they were staring at him. There were few people that held his gaze, such as Eva, who seemed amused before going back to yelling at Ezekiel, and Tyler, who was relieved to have a distraction from the sickening sounds Geoff and Bridgette made upon their so-called _public display of affection_ but nearly jumped out of his seat when his cellphone went off, a muffled ringtone crying out from his track pants until he answered it. It wasn't until Noah caught sight of Cody that he became agitated, for the small boy kept looking at him, something rather undecipherable written on his face. He had stopped making small talk with Trent, nearly dropping a spoonful of sugary cereal as he recognized Noah despite his slightly disordered appearance.

He shrugged it off, getting up to throw away his apple core. Honestly, he didn't look that much different that he did on a daily basis. As much as he hated to admit it, he didn't have Justin's looks or Owen's height or Trent's smoothness or even Duncan's fisque. If he looked _awful_ , it was only because he looked that way normally.

As he tossed the apple core into a trash can beside the door leading to the hallway, Noah smirked. What he did have was his intelligence, and to him, that was worth more than anything.

Screw the others.

He didn't need them.

All he needed was himself, a dark room, and his video game system.

* * *

 **I'm really wondering if that week-long study of Noah was worth it. I mean, I'm still jittery about if he's OOC or not. Although, this is AU since all fanfiction is AU since its events never occurs in the canon storyline and to an extent, all characters in fanfiction are OOC since the actions that they perform are created by fans that require certain traits for their plotlines to progress.**

 ***hums to self, then frowns* Did I just out-logic myself? *shakes head* I believe I did! Ah well, now if anyone ever says I'm writing the characters incorrectly or something, I have a little paragraph to send them.**

 **After rereading this, I feel slightly better about deciding to write this entire story in Noah's point of view. On the other hand, I feel like I need to research random smart crap for him to say/think since I wrote this chapter based on the top-on-my-head-vocabulary-because-I'm-in-math-class-and-the-teacher-will-kill-me-if-she-realizes-I'm-not-listening-to-the-lesson.**

 **I'm forgetting something...Ah ha! I know! I'm forgetting to grovel for reviews! Yes, yes! *starts a small fire and builds an altar, placing a portrait of the number nine at the center of the altar* Please review, for if you do, the Nine Gods of Nine O'blivion will not sacrifice Trent for his unworthy service as their faithful butler!**

* * *

 **Signing out**

 **Sir Ben Evans IV of Kanto**


	2. Par-tay!

**Chapter two!**

 **So...I feel like I need notes. Um...Let's see… *starts counting on fingers* Noah's an asshole, yes, I spelt Ybox like that on purpose, and methylene blue really does work like that.**

* * *

 **Here is a poem:**

 **Large franchises and corporations,**

 **Can you see through my disguise?**

 **That I truly wish to undermine you**

 **For what riches leading to your demise?**

 **I know not what you bought into,**

 **So my jealousy will burn like a flame**

 **As I am required to disclaim.**

 **- _Sir Ben Evans IV of Kanto_**

* * *

"Just go through the door on your left," Noah scoffed into his headset, pressing buttons rapidly on his Ybox controller. He was lounging on the floor of his room, a blanket thrown on his lap as he glared at the television screen in front of him. "Dragon Assassin isn't that hard, honey."

"Dude! It is too!" an irritated feminine voice argued on the other end, causing an amused smirk from Noah. "I've looked through this level twenty times! Where's this secret level you keep going about?!"

He laid back onto the soft red carpet, bending his neck awkwardly to keep an eye on the screen, "You can't see the door-the level wouldn't be secret if you knew about it."

"Then how did you find it?" the voice grumbled, bumping their avatar, a brutish ogre, into the left wall of the hallway she was in with Noah's avatar, a cloaked elf, right behind her.

"I had a week off from school." he shrugged, moving his avatar to a section of the wall. As he touched it, his character went through the wall rather than getting pushed back. Immediately, he was pulled into another room.

Soon after, the ogre went through the wall and popped behind Noah, "Well, I don't do my homework two weeks in advance."

"What are you trying to say?" he frowned, leading the way as he glanced around his room. It was much cleaner now, albeit still as dark since he preferred to keep his curtains pulled all day. While his bed wasn't made, his dirty laundry was put into a small hamper by the door and all of his trash was tossed into a bin. A computer flickered a preprogrammed sleep mode screen on a metal desk that had an office chair neatly pushed in. Books, compact discs, and digital versatile discs littered the surface of his desk. "I email all of my professors during the summer so that all my homework is done before school begins."

"Nitro, you're such a nerd," the voice snorted as he went another wall and pulled out a hidden treasure chest that was safeguarded with a password. Noah's username, N42, was printed neatly on its cover. "So then how do you attend class if you've done all the work already?"

"They let me do my own projects on the condition that I showcase my work at the end of second semester," he mumbled, entering the password quickly and taking out its contents. "I don't have to attend class and they don't have to put with me. It's a win-win situation."

"Hey!" the voice squeaked, earning an eye roll from himself.

"What, Kanthor?" he prodded, waiting for the girl to reply as he sent the contents of the

chest to their Underground Alliance, The Anarchists. To him, it was such a strange name for their group, but who was he to judge?

"Huh? Oh, nothing." Kanthor answered after a moment. "I have a friend over in my room. They startled me."

"Is that your online buddy?!" a giddy voice chirped on Kanthor's side of the headset. There was static. They were probably fighting over Kanthor's speaker bit. "Hi, Nitro! I'm Mol-"

"No!" Kanthor scolded. "He's not allowed to know my real name!"

"Do you know his real name?" the friend asked curiously, humming to herself. "Well,

guess not if you call him 'Nitro.' Why do you do that?"  
"We don't talk about our personal lives to prevent drama," Noah answered, almost laughing at himself. He had enough of drama due to the people outside his room. True, it wasn't near as bad at the Playa De Loser, but there was still gossip. "We can talk about personal preferences, such as mainstream media, politics, game advice, et cetera."

"Ah. That's geeks for you-making stuff too complicated." the friend commented offhandedly. Then, she rubbed the microphone to cause static before speaking again, "Anyway, I'm Ruth, _Kanthor's_ girlfriend."

"Uh huh," he nodded, then frowned at the weight of her words. "Wait, you're…?"

"Yes." Kanthor sighed. "Go play over there, Ruth."

"Ah. I didn't know your- erm," Noah struggled to find the correct way to say this as he glanced around his room nervously. Was he nervous? That was nonsense-Kanthor didn't know him in real life. There was no attachment between them. "I didn't know your compass was oriented that way."

"Well, it is. You're not weirded out or anything, right?" she asked quickly. "If _you_ aren't okay with it, then I guess we're all going to hell."

"Why should I be 'okay' with it?" he shot back indignantly.

"Aren't you-" Kanthor wondered, much to his dismay.

"No, I am not gay." Noah scowled. Why would she even think that?

"Oh. Oh! S-Sorry, dude! I didn't know!" she apologized hastily. "God, guess I made this awkward, huh?"

Just as he was about to answer, there was a loud knock at his door. He groaned, "Yeah. I have to go."

Without waiting for her reply, he shut down the Ybox and threw his controller and headset on top of the system. As he stood up, he tossed his blanket over it neatly before going to the door. No sense in letting nosey morons have more information about his personal life than needed.

As he neared the door, he glanced into the mirror hanging over the sink in his private bathroom. While there was still dark bags under his eyes, he looked much better compared to this morning. After washing and brushing his hair, he had put on fresh shorts and white undershirt. He was barefoot, but he had clean-shaven and therefore presentable.

An annoyed expression on his face, he answered the door, "May I help you?"

"No." Justin shrugged in the doorway, trying to force his way into the room. But as Noah stood firmly, he stepped back. "You hiding something?"

"Of course not, but my room is none of your business." Noah raised a brow at him. "What do you want?"

"It's more what Geoff wants. He's throwing a party tonight to kick off things before the new season begins. He wants everyone to be there." he informed, leaning back onto the wall of the hallway. His eyes did a one-over on Noah and he smiled smugly. "I was told to invite you, but you don't seem like much to add to the party."

"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked needlessly. Might as well humor him.

"That you're too much a stick in the mud to attend." Justin pushed himself off the wall and flashed Noah one of his award-winning smiles. "But now I've done Geoff a favor, so he'll owe me later, all at no cost."

As with that, he was off, bounding down the hall to greet Sadie and Katie who were waiting patiently for him.

As he closed the door, he closed in eyes and tried to stop the rapidly forming heading he was receiving by massaging the temples on his forehead. Great. Lovely. Splendid. That stupid party boy was throwing a party already, which meant music being played too loudly until dawn tomorrow morning. Loud music, with all the added _benefits_ that came when teenagers partied, meant he wouldn't be able to focus on his game tonight.

He grinned slyly as he snatched a piece of paper and a pen from his desk, making sure he locked the door to his room as he left.

He had an idea.

* * *

 **Time change! This is me, Steve, your friendly narrator! Have a terrific day!**

* * *

"So, this is your setup?" Noah struggled to make his smile sincere as Geoff excitedly rambled on about the party. So as Geoff moved the pool chairs out of the way, for he was planning on creating a dance floor of some sort for everyone, Noah pointed at a keyboard, a guitar, and several microphones placed on top of a makeshift stage, created by Bridgette by the use of four large plastic tables. It almost made him wince, did she actually expect plastic tables to support the weight of four people?

"Totally, dude! The Drama Brothers are gonna perform about an hour after the party starts!" Geoff laughed as he pushed the pool chairs by a small bar arrangement. On top of the counter, there was a large punch bowl fill with a blue liquid and a bag of chips that was already opened. "It's kinda cool that all four of them are here for the season, right?"

"Yeah." Noah leaned toward the punch bowl, inspecting it. Yes, he could make use of this. He dropped his fake smile and widened his eyes innocently, "Hey, your punch isn't nearly sweet enough, Geoff."

"Really?" Geoff seemed panicked, jumping over the chairs to dip his hand into the bowl and slurped. Seriously? Couldn't the neanderthal get a cup instead of contaminating the drink? When he finished, he bit his lip nervously, "Well, it's kinda sweet."

"But is it sweet enough for the party?" Noah asked, saying Geoff's obvious doubts aloud. "Since this is the season's first party, it has to be _huge_ -so if the punch isn't sweet enough, it'll _totally_ kill the mood."  
"Crap, man! You're right!" Geoff gasped, putting his wet hand on his face. Which left an off-blue stain on his face. Idiot. "I told Bridge to put in that extra bag of sugar!"

An _extra_ bag? He mentally gagged, the punch had to be disgustingly sweet already if they had already dumped a bag in the punch. Still, he made his tone sugary-sweet, "I have something in my room that would fix it."

"Really?" Geoff asked in an excited, surprised tone. God, he so dramatic.

"Really." he made his smile painfully wide, clenching his paper tightly. "It would 'kick it up a level' per se."

"Dude! That's awesome!" Geoff clapped Noah on the back. He had to stop himself from snapping, this was a white shirt! What Geoff thinking-now Noah would have to spend an hour with cleaning out the stain! "Can you do it before the party?"

"Depends. When does it begin?" he sighed as Geoff pulled his hand off of him, noticing the dark blue stain on his shoulder.

"Seven." Geoff grinned as Noah did the calculations in his head. Seven. It was four in the afternoon right now, and the Drama Brothers would be performing at eight. More than enough time for his plan.

"I'll have it done in a hour." Noah nodded, turning away from Geoff to glance at the music set. His eyes following the cord, he noted the small paper tied to the end of the set's wires where everything was plugged in. Quickly, he scribbled down the seemingly unimportant letters on the note onto the paper he had. It was Harold's coding, he could tell that much. Since all of the music is planned electronically, Harold must have passwords and firewalls set up to protect the data files. Not that would matter to Noah.

Looking behind his shoulder, he made sure Geoff wasn't paying attention as he reached under the table and unscrewed the bolts of the table, pocketing them. As the table wobbled, he made sure to keep a few in their place so that no one would suspect anything before he went back into the building.

* * *

 **Oof! Looks like it is time for me to do my job again! Time change!**

* * *

His eyes scanned the computer screen as he typed, leaning forward in his chair. Bangs in his face, he blew them out of the way as he disabled Harold's firewall easily. Amateur. The password was even less difficult for Noah to disengage, and he was inside Harold's computer in exactly forty-two seconds. His average time. Good, but he would have to practice-he couldn't risk getting slow. Moving around the files with keyboard strokes, Noah neatly wiped the music programming of the set for tonight, then disabled the instruments and microphones from the speakers. Then he installed a small list that was similar to what Harold had planned, setting it to play for a full hour before performing a self-destruct on its programming. There. Now after eight o'clock tonight, the music would be cut, and the instruments wouldn't be able to play.

Interesting. His brow arched in curiosity as he noticed Cody's keyboard was wired to be able to play set songs. He smirked, he couldn't let them have no music for the rest of the night, could he? So he turned on that function alone, keeping the manual options of the keyboard off so that it was virtually unusable, and set a song to play continuously at 8:03. That way they would have time to adjust to the lack of music, then be able truly appreciate Noah's music choice. And just for kicks, he set the speakers to a muffled tone after eight so that if they did enjoy it by some chance, they would be unable to turn the speakers unbearably loud.

This was good, but how could he make it great? He bit his lip as he noticed another file. Inside it, he changed the functions, realizing the file was connected to the entire building's lights. In a moment of thought, he set the building's power to be cut at 8:04, leaving his room alone connected to the power so that he wouldn't have to worry about his game getting deleted if he didn't save his progress in time.

Finally, he made sure that the pool's filter would turn on 6:45. It would take an hour for the water to fully filter, but that more than enough time for him. Then, he covered his tracks by putting empty files into Harold's program so it would appear untampered and put his own signature firewalls on his own files.

Pleased with his work, he turned off the computer after disconnecting his computer from Harold's and stood. On the corner of his desk was a small blue bottle, which he grabbed before leaving his room again.

He made his way down to the lobby, making sure no one was following him as he went down a dusty hallway into the control room. There, he filled the pool's filter with half of the bottle's contents before adjusting the wires of the pool to set a mild electrical shock at 8:05 through the water.

Satisfied, he left the room and made his way outside to the punch bowl. People milled around the pool, disgustingly ecstatic about the party planned later this evening. As he neared the drink, he caught Geoff's gaze and nodded, mimicking the cheerful thumbs ups that the party boy gave him. So he turned, hiding his work, as he poured the rest of the bottle's contents into the punch. Taking the ladle in the bowl, he mixed it well, a smirk on his face as he noticed no difference in the punch after his addition. Good.

"Noah!" someone called, and he quickly shoved the cap back onto the bottle, hiding the bottle in his pocket carefully to keep his hands clean. Just as he hid the evidence, someone turned him around.

"Cody." he sighed, stepping away from the smaller boy with a careful glint in eye. He held a stack of cups and a package of napkins in his arms and he seemed as overly cheerful as ever. Apparently even Cody was affected by the madness of the party, for he was in only a pair of swimming trunks and a Drama Brothers t-shirt. So he's publicizing his own band? Go figure.

"Hey!" he grinned, setting the cups and napkins on the counter next to the punch bowl. Taking one of the cups, he filled it with the punch and drank it. "Woah! This is sweet!"

"Like candy?" he suggested, biting his tongue when he saw Cody's mouth had turned a dark blue. A good dosage of methylene blue never ceased to amaze him.

"Yeah!" he grinned, filling up his cup again. Noah almost had the heart to stop him-that much of the chemical would cause hypertension and abdominal pain. As he finished his second cup, he smiled, showing off his navy blue teeth. "So, are you coming to the party tonight?"

"I doubt it." he shook his head, keeping his face blank to avoid suspicion. But, frankly, Cody would be the last person to be suspicious of anything. "I have work to do."

"What kind of work?" he asked curiously, his tone completely full-hearted and sincere.

"Just work." Noah shrugged, turning away to leave. His work was done. Now he could play his video game in peace.

* * *

 ***starts dancing* I like the music Noah picked out. You could grind to it, no problem. Time change!**

* * *

"Still, I'm sorry about earlier." Kanthor mumbled as she moved her avatar across the screen of Kosmic Kaos. They were playing a new landscape that had come up when the game had been updated last month. So far, it seemed the company had built the hype up too much for the game.

"Still, I don't care." Noah retorted, eyeing the clock at the corner of game's screen. 7:57. Good grief, they were playing their music loud enough that Americans could probably hear it. All the more reason for him to go through with his plan. So he hit a few buttons and saved his game, putting down the controller. "Hey, I need to go."

"Alright. Nice five minutes talking to you." Kanthor replied, slightly irritated as he turned off the headset and placed it neatly on the Ybox next to the controller. Then, he folded his blanket over the device and shut down the television monitor.

With a lazy heave, he stood up and turned off the lights to his room, then turned off the computer monitor. Good. Then the others wouldn't know that he had power still. Which, to avoid accusations, he had his shirt from earlier soaking in a tub of boiling water to get the punch stain out and had left himself to wander his room shirtless since he wasn't leaving the room tonight and it would be a waste of laundry to put on another shirt today.

His bare feet shuffled across the carpet sluggishly as he moved to the window, pulling the curtains open to view the other losers below at the pool.

Just as he predicted, Justin was in the pool, lounging effortlessly in the water with Beth, Sadie, and Katie by his side. Geoff and Bridgette were once again making out at the other end of the pool. Disgusting.

While everyone else was dancing on Geoff's makeshift dance floor, the other Drama Brothers were near their stage, getting ready for their performance. Cody was chugging down the rest of the punch, which Noah was left to assume that he alone drank roughly half of it, next to Trent as he tuned his guitar, which was still plugged into the speakers. It was Harold that worried him. He was glaring at the microphones, tapping them gently to test them.

Noah opened the window slightly, just enough to hear everyone outside without giving large notice that he was spying on them. Of course, when he did this, his eardrums were nearly knocked out from the volume of the noise. Not like he needed his hearing anyway.

As the music was cut by Noah's schedule, and a light flashed on his computer behind him. The playlist had self-destructed automatically and according to plan. Cody put down his cup as he waved to Justin, who seemed reluctant to leave the pool and his fans' arms. Harold stopped tapping the microphone, shrugging as he climbed on top of the stage with Trent and Cody.

Harold said something into the microphone, but frowned when the device didn't work. Giving Trent a pointed look, he motioned his hand to start playing as Justin slowly waddled out of the pool. Trent tried to play a riff, but shrugged when his guitar stayed silent. By this time, people were beginning to mumble to each other awkwardly with sideways glances as Cody tried to play the chorus on his keyboard, much to his dismay when he realized that it also wasn't working.

It was about then that Justin finally got out of the pool, making Noah grin in victory. From the midsection of his ribs down, Justin was dyed a dark blue from the methylene blue that was put into the filter.

"My beauty!" Noah could hear his scream from here, and he had a second story room. Impressive.

Everyone turned to see him, and those in the pool were stunned. Even Geoff and Bridgette had taken a breather to notice Justin. Beth was the first to follow Justin's lead and she exited the pool, yelping when she noticed that she was covered in blue dye as well.

What had been numbed silence turned into panic as everyone Geoff and Bridgette scrambled out of the pool, but at that point, the stage Bridgette had made gave loose under the combined weight of Cody, Harold, and Trent and the three were sent toppling over with the equipment falling to the ground. Trent, being the heaviest of them, stopped the microphones and instruments from falling into the pool, but Cody and Harold rolled over him and hit the water with a heavy splash, completely submerging in the pool and came to the surface blue from head to toe.

Just then, Cody's keyboard made a funny sound as Noah's computer made a soft beep behind him. Trent stared at the instrument in shock as it played a short melody.

 _I love you, You love me_

 _We're a happy family_

 _With a great big hug and a kiss from me to you,_

 _Won't you say you love me too?_

Noah smirked, pleased with his music selection. Cody, who was still in the pool, flushed hard under the blue dye as the song continued.

 _I love you, You love me_

 _We're best friends like friends should be_

 _With a great big hug and a kiss from me to you,_

 _Won't you say you love me too?_

Then, the computer beeped again as the power to the building was cut off, including the music. He could hear people gasp in surprise, others yell, and Geoff groan above everyone else at the destruction of his gathering. Slowly, Noah began counting down in his head as he watched everyone below. Well, he figured he was watching them. It was too dark to see anything now.

Just as the murmurs began to settle down, a sharp electrical shock ran through the pool, giving a second of light. While only a few people were hit by it, nearly everyone cried in surprise as the pool made a strange sound as it buzzed with electricity. Then, like the rest of the Playa De Losers, it was powerless and the party-goers were left in the dark.

Noah sighed, content with his work, and closed his window. Shutting the blinds, he wondered if he should begin to play Kosmic Kaos again. On one hand, it might give him away if he played the game, yet on the other hand, he needed to get back to Kanthor.

At most, he would have to wait ten minutes before someone fixed the power and he would be able to play his game, yet Kanthor could log out of the game at any moment. And he was merely assuming that she was still on.

With a grin, he moved the blanket off of the Ybox, snatching the controller and headset.

What's life without risks?

* * *

 **Not quite sure why, but this chapter seemed to take forever. Yet, once again, it was only about a day of actually writing. I spent another day editing and uploading, another making the cover picture (Yes, I made that. It's watercolor and done by hand, so that's why it looks like crap.), and another day just being lazy.**

* * *

 **Ah, Noah. You're such a jerk. But we love you for it. And to those curious, methylene blue is a synthetic drug that was used to cure things like malaria but was eliminated because it causes discoloration in the whites of the eyes, urine, and stool. It also has other side effects, but the fact that it permanently dyes is the main reason people don't use it anymore. So if you put it on your skin, it is permanent, but only to that layer of skin. So it goes away in about a week at most after your body sheds its other layer of skin. However, kool-aid/punch is perfectly washable and is NOT permanent if you know how to clean it.**

 **And yes, that was the Barney song. Cause Noah is cool like that.**

* * *

 **REVIEW! SO THAT WE MIGHT NOT HAVE TO SACRIFICE** **TRENT!**

* * *

 **Signing out**

 **Sir Ben Evans IV of Kanto**


	3. It's Raining Men! Or Boys, Either Way

**Chapter Three. What must goes up, must come down, yeah?**

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 **Whew...Two chapters in two days? I'm impressing myself!**

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 **All generic disclaimers apply.  
**

* * *

 **Steve here! The day after!**

* * *

He was good.

He smirked to himself, a tray properly filled to his content in his hands as he walked into the cafeteria during breakfast. Yes, he was good. As he made a quick glance around the room, he was pleased to see everyone was flustered from last night. And no one was giving him notice-no was the wiser that he was the one behind it.

"Hey, Noah!" he heard Owen call to him from their usual table, waving to him. While the large boy was sitting in front of another mountain of food, it seemed he had invited extra people to sit with them. Odd. It almost ruined Noah's mood. He didn't particularly care for the others' company. Next to Owen, a blue Cody was scowling as he poked his breakfast, two eggs and a piece of bacon, and a blue Harold was glaring at everyone, shooting suspicious looks to people. "Come sit over here!"

Nodding, he lazily made his way to them, putting his tray down to sit between Cody and Owen and across from Harold.

"You okay, Little Buddy?" Owen elbowed him in the side, shoving half a pizza into his mouth. "You seem tired."

"I was up late." he shrugged nonchalantly, a bit annoyed at Owen's comment. He looked _fine_. He was completely dressed today, sweater vest and shoes included! God, he had even shaved before leaving his room, but the first thing Owen noticed was that he couldn't get rid of the bags under his eyes? "I had some summer homework I had to finish."

"Your teachers give you homework over the summer?" Owen repeated, unsure of himself. "That's harsh."

He leaned back in his chair, trying to wipe the smirk from his face. It wasn't a complete lie, as he told Kanthor that he did his yearly assignments during the beginning of summer, yet it made an excellent cover up. "Yes, that's why I was unable to attend the party last nigh-"

"Don't even bring up last night." Cody cut him off, causing Noah to raise a brow at him. He seemed angry-which for anyone else, that made sense, but Cody always seemed to be cool-headed. Maybe he should retract his statement-Cody had punched Duncan last season in a fit of anger. Yet angry as Cody seemed, it was impossible to take someone blue seriously.

"Why?" he widened his eyes innocently, sincerity dripping off his voice.

"Some jerk messed with our equipment." Harold scoffed, shooting Justin a nasty look. "And they put blue stuff in the pool."

Stuff? No, he didn't put _stuff_ in the pool. _Stuff_ would wash out fairly easily. Noah put methylene blue in the pool, which is permanent. It would take a week for them to shed their blue skin, a couple of days for the white of their eyes to return to normal, and it would be a pain for them to fix their hair. If they could fix their hair.

"That's awful." Noah commented, biting the inside of his cheek to stop himself from grinning. "Do you have any idea who did it?"

"I have my suspicions." Harold gave Justin another pointed glare. Justin was sitting at a table with Sadie, Katie, and Beth, but instead of them being dejected over their color change, they were chatting avidly to each other. Hmph. It seemed that Justin had the girls to stroke his ego after being taken down a notch.

"You think Justin did it?" Cody frowned, eating a bite of egg. Typical Cody, unable to see the bad side of people. Of course, this meant Noah admitting he had a bad side. "Why?"

"Because he's jealous of the me for going solo." Harold snorted, turning his head up arrogantly. "That's why he took so long to get out of the pool before the performance."

"But he was there-he's blue now." Cody chewed with his mouth open. Disgusting. "Why would he do that to himself?"

"To make himself less suspicious." Harold informed, his tone wise and knowledgeable.

Owen mumbled as he put the other half of the pizza in his mouth, "I guess that makes sense."

"Hey, Harold," Cody sighed, taking a hand to touch his blue hair. As he touched it, it stood stiff. "How do you get this stuff out?"

"I did some tests on it last night after taking eleven showers. It's pretty screwed up." Harold scoffed, rubbing his blue hands together. "Whoever, _or Justin_ , did this, knows their chemicals. They put a drug called methylene blue in not only the pool, but in the punch too."

"T-The punch?" Cody stammered, probably remembering the cups he chugged last night.

"Yeah. It causes diarrhea, dizziness, and nausea if you ingest it. And of course, other things." Harold stated, not noticing Cody's gradual panic. "You'll just have to wait a week for your skin, but I guess you'll just have to soak your hair in vegetable oil to get the blue tone to go away. Then mix your shampoo with baking powder and vitamin C and give your hair a hard wash."

Noah brought a hand to his mouth to hide his smirk. While he doubted Harold's method would work, he was scot free _and_ they thought Justin did it.

Could this be any more perfect?

* * *

 **About noon, given that Noah takes forever to eat. Geez, he's got problems.**

* * *

"But what if I run out of toilet paper?" Cody mumbled. He was starting to annoy him. Cody had followed Noah back to the door to his room, so now Noah was stuck trying to figure out a way to get Cody to leave so that he could get back to his games. But no, he was whining about the side effects of methylene blue that he hasn't felt yet. "What if I need to go, but I run out of toilet paper?"

"Then I don't know what you'll do." Noah sighed, his hand on the doorknob. Actually, he had a feeling on what Cody would do if that situation, as disgusting as it was, were to occur. Most likely, Cody would yell for passerby to get him a new roll, and that was the worst case scenario. Really, he was being too dramatic about this.

"And what if the dye spreads to my brain or something? Then I'll have a blue brain!" Cody bit his lip nervously, then a small smile grazed his mouth. "Actually, a blue brain would be pretty cool."

"Yes, like ice." Noah frowned, fingering the key in his pocket with his other hand. "And like ice, your brain will melt and you'll be nothing more than a glorified dysfunctional zombie that will be put down via a shooting squad. Yes, very _cool_."

"Yeah?" Cody gave him a weird look. Good. Now maybe he would leave Noah in peace. Then, he glanced at the door behind him. "Are you going now?"

"Maybe." he shrugged. _Maybe_ he would, if Cody would _maybe_ leave him alone.

"Can I come in?" Cody put his blue hands together, looking too innocent for his own good. So wholesome, so naive, so _him_.

Irritated, he unlocked his door. But as Cody's face lit up in excitement, Noah smirked as he slammed the door in his face, locking it quickly. He yelled through the door, "No."

He didn't hear a response, so he smugly went to his Ybox and put the headset on. Thinking better of it, he kept the game system covered with the blanket as he connected the headset to only verbal commands, trying to make contact with people in his alliance.

"Kanthor? You there?" he mumbled, going over to his computer to log onto the computer version of Kosmic Kaos. Usually he played the Ybox version, but the computer version could be refreshing from time to time.

"Nitro." came the annoyed response over his headset as he logged on, appearing in the first level of the game. The alliance lobby. But why? He saved his data before going to bed last night, right? No, of course he did. He always did. "Took you long enough."

It was then that he noticed other avatars in the lobby. Including himself and Kanthor, there was five people. And all of them were the highest members of their alliance. Noah sighed, so they were having a meeting? "What's this about?"

"Rush starts tonight. You didn't forget, did you?" Kanthor reminded, her tone sour. Rush. Were they a fraternity? No, rush was a special week every three months where the Underground Alliances had open applications to join. Much like a fraternity. Noah never had to compete in rush, since he had started his alliance with the exact members in this room, but he was annoyed when it came around. It was time consuming, yet the others seemed to think it was necessary.

"Now that we're all here, let's get this over with." a distorted voice growled into the headset as a small dwarf avatar moved on the screen. Noah rolled his eyes at the member. Vexir_Geilak. They were the only one of them that used equipment to change their voice. "Brodin's done the honors this year of getting the names. We all get a list with different names, and challenge the kids on your list. And yes, Nitro-you're required to talk to the people on your list."

"Uh huh." Noah mumbled, bored of the conversation. Suddenly, an extra screen popped up. Five names. Five idiots he had to deal with over the next week.

"Don't be like that. We know how you are." Vexir_Geilak coughed, slightly annoyed.

Noah leaned back into his chair, adjusting his headset. His hand went to his chest, was it him, or was it getting rather warm in his room? It shouldn't be. No, his room, along with everyone else's were connected to powerful air conditioners. And when he glanced behind himself to the window, where the air conditioner's controls were located, it revealed that that machine was supposedly working.

Turning the monitor off, he stood up as he heard the argument between the others. Yes, he could join in on their discussion on whether it was better to use a level fifty-seven dwarf or a level forty-nine orc to travel through stage thirteen of the fantasy war game, Ferimond, and yes, while the answer was quite simple, he disliked having to argue over such nonsense. And he needed to figure out why his room was so warm.

"I just don't see why you wouldn't choose the orc when it has a power damage of 145!" a small voice shouted into the headset as Noah tapped the switches on his air conditioner. Brodin. He was probably the youngest out the five of them. Which is the only reason Noah forgave him mentally for being wrong-level forty-nine orcs in Ferimond only have a power damage of 145 between nine at night and three in the morning, and only if their health was under fifty points.

"And I don't see why you're being stupid about this!" another voice shot back, soft and feminine. The last member of the five, Someone. Yes, their username was _Someone_. Noah didn't even attempt to understand how one could come up with such a childish name.

What was wrong with his air conditioner? He understood a lot of things, but home repairs weren't his forte. From what he could see, nothing should be wrong with it, but if he listened closely, he could hear soft thuds come from somewhere.

Closing his eyes, he tried to focus. Where was it coming from? Not from the air conditioner on his right, and it didn't seem to be coming from the other side of the room. Now as the thuds became louder and more rapid, his eyes widened as he glanced up at the ceiling. Whatever it was, it was coming from _above_ him. From the air ducts.

And just as he figured that out, the vent on his ceiling shook violently and gave way as a small _blue_ boy fell onto his carpet with a mighty thud.

"Oof!" the boy cried out, curling into a ball upon impact. Noah's brow twitched in shock-then anger as the vent and his air conditioner was now surely broken.

"Cody!" he shouted, forgetting that he was not only still wearing the headset, but that it was still connected to his alliance. "What are you _doing_?!"

"H-Hey!" Cody coughed, dust going everywhere on his clean floor. And then he had the audacity to smile at Noah! "Heh, just _dropping_ in, I guess."

" _Dropping in_?!" he set his jaw, desperately trying to remain calm. "You just crawled through the air ducts and fell from my ceiling to _drop in_? Are you mad?!"

"No, just curious." Cody shrugged, standing up to dust himself off. Great. Lovely. He was getting dust _everywhere_ and he hated dust! It would take him hours to clean properly! "You wouldn't let me in earlier."

"Because I like my privacy!" Noah pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling a headache start to come on. "You probably don't understand what privacy is though."

"What do you mean?" he wondered, pure confusion causing his brow to lower.

"I mean you would jump at the chance to go into the women's shower room to see Gwen naked." Noah's voice was brought down to a low, rough growl. "You would probably jump at the chance for _you_ to walk by her naked."

"Yeah, but that's Gwen." Cody shrugged, not seeming to understand Noah's point. Of course. Was Noah the only person here with an intelligence quotient over one hundred?

"You came into my room unannounced." he said slowly, trying to get a good metaphor for the boy. "I could have been naked, and you've would've done the equivalent to walking in on me."

"So?" Cody shuffled on his feet, apparently impatient. "We're both guys, so what's matter?"

"My privacy matters!" Noah put his hands up, waving him off. "Go! Leave me alone!"

"But-" Cody stood straighter, at attention. Was he not paying attention to him before?  
"No. Leave." Noah walked closer to him, causing Cody to back up toward the door.

He almost got Cody out of his room. Almost. But as Cody's back pressed against the door, he gazed down aimlessly at the trash can next to him. His eyes widened in shock at its contents, then he glanced at his blue arms, then back to the trash can.

Well, that's just dandy.

As Cody's gaze rose to meet Noah's, he swallowed thickly as he took a tentative step back. He was caught in his own trap. He knew better than to just toss it in the trash can, but how was he supposed to predict someone breaking into his room?

And Cody leaned down, his arm outstretched as he reached for something in the trash can. A cold, nervous sweat crawled on the back of his neck-but why? He wasn't afraid of Cody, he couldn't imagine the small boy being able to actually harm him if he wasn even capable of getting so angry to do so. Which, he wasn't. The only recorded time of Cody losing his temper was with Duncan, and that occurrence had been a delayed tension after his and Gwen's little episode during the World Tour season. So technically, he nothing to fear with Cody.

It was the others he was worried about. Justin especially. If that oversized Ken doll found out that Noah was the cause of his Na'vi transformation, he would certainly beat him to a pulp. What Justin lacked in brains, he made up for muscles and muscular friends to back him up.

"What's this?" Cody's eyes narrowed as he held an empty bottle of methylene blue, his body hard and tense, in what? Anger?

"Ah, you see-" Noah mumbled, desperately racking his head for a valid excuse. "I was just-"

"You jerk!" Cody scowled, gripping the bottle tightly in his hand. Unsurprisingly, the bottle didn't even bulge from the pressure, showing Cody's _great_ upper body strength. "You did this?!"

What were his chances of being able to lie his way out of this? No, those odds were much too low. His chances of being able to outrun Cody? Given the ratio of his cardio ability compared to Cody's, he had a ninety-five percent chance of error. Also not good. "I don't know-"

" _You_ made me blue?!" Cody threw the empty bottle back into the trash can in a fit of rage, the plastic container hitting the bottom of the trash can with a thud. "Dude, you were just getting on my case a second ago, and _you turned me blue_?!"

"Not you especially." Noah shrugged, unable to wipe the natural, blank expression from his face. Great. Now that was working against him.

"You jerk!" he repeated, more exasperated this time. "You turned me into a smurf! And-and you played freaking Barney from my keyboard, didn't you?! Tyler's gone up to me five times today to give me a _great big hug_ , and it's because of you!"

Should he apologize? No. No, he wasn't going to apologized. He never apologized and he wasn't starting now. He wasn't regretful of what he did. No, he would do it again if he was given the chance. But as he opened his mouth to say something, Cody waved his hands angrily to stop him.

"No! I don't wanna hear it!" Cody scoffed, his blue hand reaching for the doorknob. "You want me to leave? Fine! I'll go!"

With that, Cody left his room, slamming the door behind him. The noise made Noah wince-what was Cody planning? Was he going to tell everyone? Probably. So it was a precaution for Noah to lock the door to his room in case the others came for him.

"That your boyfriend, Nitro?" Vexir_Geilak snickered, a spine-tingling noise from how the voice modifier made his laugh demonic.

" _What_?" Noah felt slack-jawed, his hand going up to his ear to feel the headset still there. Verdammt! How could he forget to turn that off? Oh, that's right! Blue boys were falling from the ceiling! "N-No!"

"Pfft. So yes?" Brodin hummed, obviously pleased with something. "Pay up, Someone. I told you he was gay-so hurry up and pay me the twenty gems you promised me!"

"Dang it!" Someone's soft voice cried out, upset. They were betting over his sexuality? Who does that?! "Seriously, Nitro? Couldn't you have waited to come out of the closet?"

"Erm, guys?" Kanthor coughed awkwardly as they bickered.

"I am not gay!" Noah snapped, turning his headset off. He wasn't gay! He really wasn't!

Who _bets_ over sexuality?!

* * *

 **See, Noah? This is what you get for screwing around with drugs! Karma, little Indian boy! ...Wait...I feel like I just said something politically incorrect. *does a bit of research* Ah. India is predominantly Hindu, so technically I'm not totally wrong. There's branches of that believe in karma and others that don't. Guess that's a fun fact I can use later.**

 **Ferimond is a fictional game. Although, Kosmic Kaos and Dragon Assassin are fictional as well, Noah is actually known to play those games. But let's be serious now, what hard-core gamer only plays two games? There's gotta be a lot he's not telling us. So I made up a new game for him to play.**

 **And yes, I brought up the forbidden topic. Poop. Because for some reason, no one ever mentions that fact that we all have to go at some point. Even the Queen of England has nature call from time to time. Now, point being that I hope no is writing extensively over what goes on in the toilet, since I would like the benefit of the doubt.**

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 **REVIEW! THE NINE GODS ARE PLEASED, BUT JUST FOR GOOD MEASURE!**

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 **Signing out**

 **Sir Ben Evans IV of Kanto**


	4. It's the Nerd Life For Us!

**No notes other than I own nothing. What? Is that disclaimer not creative enough for you? Ah well for you, then!**

* * *

 _ **Steve here with the afternoon report! Noah's room, later the next day!**_

* * *

"You wish to explain yourself?" Noah mumbled into the headset, violently killing a horde of black mages on Ferimond. His avatar took out several out with a swing of his broadsword, knocking people out of the game. Behind him, Kanthor's avatar simply waited behind him as he slaughtered onward.

"What do you mean?" she moved her avatar half a pace back. They were conquering a small crater on the thirty-fourth level of the game, claiming it for the alliance so that they would have grounds for the rushees to play on.

"Yesterday." Noah scowled darkly at his door, which was now bolted shut. Much like his windows. He was paranoid, but he was being realistic. Cody couldn't keep a secret to save his life, and Noah wasn't exactly in his good graces right now anyway. So if that meant him not leaving his room until the tension blew over, so be it. He had a few snacks under his bed that he smuggled past Chris' security and the heat would be bearable until he could leave his room to call the repairs office to fix his air conditioner. "I'm worth twenty gems?"

"Someone and Brodin were messing around." Kanthor pulled out a silver dagger and followed Noah as he quickly hiked down the crater. "They thought the bet would be cert-uh…"

"They thought they _knew_ I was gay?" he scoffed, running his sword though another low-level player. Amateurs. "I can assure you that I am not homosexual."

"Then you have a girlfriend?" she wondered curiously.

"No." Noah shrugged. He was sitting in front of his television, controller in hand still wearing his clothes from yesterday. Yes, he had thought about changing this morning, or even into pajamas last night, but the extra effort wasn't exactly worth the rewards. Besides, his fashion taste was impeccable, no matter if his laundry was dirty or not. "But that doesn't mean anything."

"Then you've been kissed, right?" she suggested, finally striking out a mage with her dagger.

Oh. Oh, god. Don't remind him. Izzy was _still_ talking about that _one time_ and that was over a year ago! It was an accident, and it was only on the ear, so it didn't count. He was asleep, unaware of the torment that would assume based on nothing more than an unfortunate sleeping position.

"Yeah?" Kanthor gave a small laugh, a bit smug with herself. No. Was silence now an appropaint form of submission? He thought not-silence was nothing more than a delay of action. And he had yet to perform his action. "Who was the lucky girl?"

"It was on the ear." Noah muttered, how much trouble would he get in for stabbing Kanthor's avatar? There was a chance he could knock her out of the game since his power statistics were so high, but he wouldn't be able to flee if he missed somehow since Kanthor's speciality was her speed statistics. "Doesn't count."

"Was it longer than three seconds?" her avatar slit the throat of the last mage, then spun her dagger in her hand in amusement.

"I...don't know. I believe so." Noah shrugged, his sweater vest hot and sticky with sweat. Cody was an idiot-he broke into his room, broke his air conditioner, ruined his plan, _and_ he was the sole cause of this awkward conversation. He didn't know how long they were like that. They were for asleep! During the Awake-a-thon, Cody was nothing more than a large stuffed bear that had been left too close within his range, allowing Noah to snag him in his sleep. Nothing more.

"Then it counts." she let out a breathy laugh as she saved her progress, causing Noah to frown. She was leaving? Why?

"What are you doing?" he grumbled, annoyed. She was just leaving him after going all this way?

"Ruth wants me to meet her at school. Don't know why." she logged out of the game, but kept her headset connected. "Your rushees will be here any minute. Don't murder their characters on sight like you did last time. And fix your voice. They aren't allowed to be familiar with you until after this week."

Then he was alone, his avatar standing at the bottom a smoldering crater that was covered in the artificial blood of mages. Sighing, he touched his headset when a small beep registered. Kanthor had disconnected from her headset now. His hands tapped the buttons on his controller, switching units with his headset as he lowered its pitch. He wasn't Vexir_Geilak though. He didn't change the settings to garble his voice, that would make him sound stupid. Intimidating, maybe. But he was intimidating on his own. He didn't need a voice modifier to do that for him.

 _Da-lah!_

A name came up bottom of the television screen, JyotishYR4. Great. The first rushee was here. So much fun, he was overwhelmed with joy. Practically bursting at the seams.

He sighed to himself as a blob of gelatin slipped down the crater. A monster avatar. And not an effective one. Why were they letting newbies into their alliance again? It seemed to Noah that this would only hurt them.

As the blob neared Noah, it stopped suddenly as Noah forced his character to level his sword at it dangerously as he spoke into his headset, "Stay there. You're waiting for the others to get here."

No sooner than he said that, another name came onto the screen. TastyJoeyBacon. Was he working with five-year-olds? A half-orc came racing into the crater, excited. But it was running too fast, and couldn't stop, causing it to recashaw off the blob and fall backwards.

 _Da-lah! Da-lah!_

Two more names came onto the screen. xXDundoDillyXx and TormyCloud78. More small children Noah was required to babysit. An oversized archer and an armorless knight. God, they were all poor additions to the alliance!

The archer and the knight seemed to know each other somehow, and were playfully hitting each other with their weapons on their way down the crater. Not that Noah was going to stop them. It would only hurt their chances of completing the challenge and he didn't care if they were accepted into the alliance. Nevermind. That sounded too closely to something Chris would say.

 _Da-lah!_

Finally, the last name came onto the screen. KoolCEJA_987. Another childish name. He winced as a small human came tumbling down into the crater clumsily. Human avatars were rare since they were so weak, but this one was shorter and more fragile than it should be. And it's clothes! They were awful! A glorified violet robe was wrapped around its shoulders, draping down like a cape and it wore oversized black pantaloons that hung lowly on the avatar. A green gem-encrusted shirt and chainmail boots, it's brown hair was long, shaggy, and matted as it hung limply around their face.

But there was something interesting about its shirt. Around its chest, the material bulged in a way the other avatars didn't, then the answer smacked Noah figuratively across the face. The avatar was female. Flamboyant and immature appearing, but female. Not that he minded. Plenty of girls played the game, but most paid attention to making sure their outfits matched enough that they weren't mistaken for circus clowns.

They all lined up in front of him, and he sighed. Rush was painful, unnecessary, and illogical, but the sooner he got this done, the sooner he could be done with it. At most, he was just humoring these players. There was no way the others would select them as the new members of the Anarchists.

"State your name, level, and class." Noah cleared his throat, making his avatar point at the blob. "You first."

"Uh-" a quiet, subdued voice entered the headset as the blob fidgeted. "JyotishYR4, level-"

"No. I didn't say your username. What's your nickname?" he cut them off, slightly annoyed. Like anyone was going to call this mess of a character JyotishYR4 constantly.

"Oh." the blob moved back a bit, then forward. "Trish. And level nine of the unconscious monster class."

"Next." he snapped, getting irritated. As he glanced down at the clock, he felt like he was forgetting something. It was nearing five in the afternoon. But what?

"Erm, Joey." the second player coughed. Odd, the half-orc's voice seemed familiar. Like he had heard it from somewhere before. No. He must be imaging it. "Half-orc, level-"

"Next." Noah cut him off. He knew that voice. Or has he spent too much time in his overheated room and the video game has finally gone to his head?

"Daniel." the archer shrugged, his voice silvery and light, shouldering his bow. "Black archer. Level ten."

"Cloud." the knight grinned, an odd motion for the graphics of the game. It was a new update the creators added, but Noah had yet to find a use in it. "Lancer, level eleven."

Noah backed up his avatar, bored of them. Amateurs. But unfortunately, the human mumbled, using a default woman's voice. God, he hated that voice. It came with every cheap electronic he bought yet it never lost its annoying quality. Who would use that to modify their voice? Still, she stepped closer to Noah's avatar, "Ceja. Level five and-"

"Stop. I've heard enough." his character tighten their grip on the sword. Level five? How had she even gotten past applications? He shouldn't be dealing with this now, she shouldn't be here! The Antagonists were an elite alliance and this girl was going to make them look like fools! Yet he knew how to deal with this. If he threw a hard enough challenge at them, they would give up. Simple as that. "Today's first day of rush. I've hidden four books with our Alliance logo on it. Bring me a copy tomorrow. If you're the unlucky hoser that can't get one, then you're out."

"Wait-" the human yelped, stepping too close to Noah's avatar. In response, Noah pressed buttons on the controller, forcing the avatar to swing the sword at her. Only when the blade came down a centimeter from her neck, he stopped the blade suddenly.

"Go." Noah commanded, amused at how quickly the others left her. Good. He was still intimidating. He was starting to worry he had lost his touch. Yet the human stayed like that, but instead of waiting for her to move, he logged off and turned off his headset.

Stupid wannabees. What were the others thinking? They knew he lacked the patience to deal with others, yet they sent him five idiots. Were they trying to punish him?

Leaning back, he wiped sweat from his face. God, it was hot. But he would have to stick it out since leaving his room wasn't an option. Still, he felt like he was forgetting something. Was he supposed to do something tonight? He shouldn't-this was the Playa De Losers. He was stuck here with everyone else with no duties.

"Come on!" someone hollered outside his door, making Noah flinch. What now? "Everybody down to the pool!"

The All-Stars season. His eyes widened, watching the door. One of the requirements other than their forced confinement was that they were all supposed to watch the episodes premiere together. Aus all den verdammten Glück. How did he forget that?

Slowly, he hefted himself up, tossing the headset and controller onto the floor.. He didn't want to do this. Doing this meant leaving the safety of his room, but staying meant uncertain punishment if Chris finds out. When Chris finds out.

His hand went to the doorknob. Sooner he did this, the sooner it was over with.

* * *

 _ **Moments later by the pool!**_

* * *

" _Total...Drama...All-Stars!"_

Chris' voice called from the speakers that Noah could only assume that Harold had fixed, the components connected to a projector as everyone huddled together around the pool. Or everyone else was huddled together. As soon as Noah had stepped outside, he could feel their heated glares without having to glance up at them. So he sat alone, near the edge of the pool. There he was close to the building, yet away from everyone else.

The theme music started to play and he felt like cringing. How many times has he heard that song now? Sixty-seven times, not including the episodes he had participated in. So this was the sixty-eighth time he's heard it.

As the episode played, he leaned back. He should have brought a book. Maybe a gaming manual. Yes, that would have made a nice addition compared to just sitting here, feeling Harold's cold stare. Few of the others laughed at the corny jokes made on screen, but they didn't pay that much attention to him. So he glanced up. He might as well see who to watch out for.

Harold. That was a given. Not only had Noah out-done him by hacking his computer, Harold had to be suspicious now since Noah didn't exactly showcase his skills during the show. But hey, sports were the focus of the show. And sports weren't his forte.

Geoff. Go figure. He had stopped making out with Bridgette to give Noah a harsh glare. Not that he could blame him. Noah did ruin his party, and parties were pretty much the only thing that idiot actually cared about.

Justin. A shiver went up his spine as he saw the boy clench is blue fists in his lap, giving Noah a dirty look. Great. He needed that.

Cody. And to a lesser extent, Trent, who was sitting next to him. While Trent wasn't affected directly by Noah's prank, he was friends with Cody.

" _I'm going to win this for my Cody-kins!"_

A voice cried out and Cody winced. Sierra. Crazy maniac. Not that Noah cared, but the girl was a psychopath. But yet, most of the others smiled lightly at the line. Good. Then the damp mood tonight would be lifted enough that he could make his getaway.

" _Seriously? I'm used to girls yelling at, heck-I'm used to girls hitting me, but blanking me? Come on! … I mean, I don't care."_

Moments passed as the show continued and he rolled his eyes. Duncan. Couldn't that stupid so-called 'bad boy' pick a girl and _not_ cheat on her? It almost made Noah feel bad for Gwen, but then again, she was the 'new Heather,' per se. Why should he feel bad for her?

" _Finally! Somebody that finally gets my zingers!"_

One of the new contestants from last season grinned on screen. Jo, was it? Still, her laughter made one of the boys squirm. Brick? Maybe. He didn't know either of them. Therefore, he didn't care.

" _Are you kidding me?!"_

He heard Heather screech and he rolled his eyes again. But when he realized that everyone else was shocked to see Alejandro burst from the robot, he groaned under his breath. He was surrounded by idiots. What else was new?

" _Tune in next time for ...Total...Drama...All-Stars!"_

Chris grinned into the camera, seemingly pleased with himself as the show's credits displayed. Bored out of his mind, Noah stood.

So Lindsay got voted off. It wasn't a surprise, and Tyler seemed happy about it, but that meant having to deal with her special brand of ignorance as soon as she arrived in a day or two.

People began to stand up, and Noah quickly made his way to the door. Maybe he could be get back to his room before-

"Noah." he felt someone grab the collar to his sweater vest. Someone fairly strong. As he was turned around by them, he was face to face with Justin. He clenched his hands at his sides, glaring at Noah. "We need to talk."

* * *

 **Yes, I believe that was a good place to stop.**

 **Ah, Noah thinking bad words in German. It's entertaining, yet I feel better about typing them. Although, I get the feeling he would be really good at flirting in German...Hmmm….**

 **It was a pain in my butt to get those lines. I had to watch the show again, which I plan on doing before any chapters such as this which involve the episodes being played, and remember the lines because I couldn't find a show manuscript anywhere. All the sources I got were fan-made versions of the show.**

* * *

 **REVIEW. TRENT IS DISPLEASED WITH NOAH AND PLANS TO FRAME HIM INTO BEING THE SACRIFICE TO THE NINE GODS IF YOU DON'T.**

* * *

 **Signing out**

 **Sir Ben Evans IV of Kanto**


	5. Beat Downs and Sheep

**What is this? Chapter five? I think…**

* * *

 **Tom McGillis and Jennifer Pertsch will not respond to my many, many, many, many emails asking for the rights to the Total Drama Series. So until they either respond or I lock them in my basement and torment them by forcing them to listen as I read my writing out loud, I do not own anything except my ideas that I've used to create fanfiction.**

* * *

 _ **Immediately after the last chapter!**_

* * *

"What about?" Noah quirked an eyebrow as Justin moved him so that his back was pressed against the wall next to the door, his hand still clamped on his sweater vest. His eyes were narrowed as he clenched his other hand into a fist at his side.

But he didn't say anything. Justin glared down at him as everyone went back into the building. While a few glanced up a Noah, even fewer seemed sympathetic about his situation. Harold stopped, standing in the middle of the doorway and sent Noah a poisonous look. If Justin wasn't holding him to the wall, Noah would have scoffed at how pathetic Harold looks, angrily flexing his muscles under his shirt and pouting his lip. Did he really think he appeared threatening?

Not soon after, Trent peeked over Justin's shoulder. His expression was amused and he slapped Justin on the back, causing him to press Noah harder from the impact. Behind him, Cody shifted on his feet, wavering as if he couldn't decide to join in a good game of Punch-the-Noah or not. But he blinked, frowned to himself and went to the door, pulling on Trent's sleeve to follow him as he brushed by Harold, who walked back into the building backwards, somehow maintaining his over dramatic posture.

"I think you know." Justin seethed, lifting Noah up with one hand so that his feet dangled a bit off the ground. A show of strength? Did this Neanderthal really believe that going to intimidate him? If so, he was as pathetic as Harold. "There's a rumor going around that you're the one that screwed with everything last night."

"And?" he shrugged, causing Justin to lose his grip enough so that Noah was on the ground again. "Am I supposed to deny this?"

A mixture of anger and shock ran through him, a confused frown forming on his mouth as his grip of Noah loosened. Good, Noah's blank stare was getting to him. Then, his eyes flashed, "You turned me blue!"

"Cobalt, to be exact." he smirked. If he was going to get beat up, he was going to get a few verbal jabs in first.

"Shut up." he let go, but before Noah could process it, Justin reared his arm back and punch him hard in the stomach. "Or I'll make you."

"Oof!" Noah coughed as the air left his stomach, wincing. What? Where did his tactic go wrong? Yes, Justin was angry, but he wasn't actually going to beat Noah up, was he?

He felt a hand roughly grab at his hair, pulling his head back and he was forced to look Justin in the eye. A strange, foreign coursed through him, fear? No, he wasn't afraid. He couldn't be afraid. But this emotion-it felt familiar in that sense. Akin to fear, no. He had forgotten that old feeling. It was unnecessary and illogical.

Something flashed in his peripheral vision, then there was a sharp thwack on his left cheek. Pride caused Justin to swell, stand taller as he released him, going back inside the building with a smirk of his own.

Justin had just slapped him.

And violence only led to more violence. God, what had he started? He made his idiot rival now his abusive pursuer. And now Justin had a taste of Noah's nervousness.

But he wasn't afraid. He was clean of that emotion.

* * *

 _ **In all honesty, Noah had that coming. Steve informs it's the next day. Later!**_

* * *

"Everyone, hand over your copy of the book." Noah sighed in the darkness of his room. An empty can of cola sat beside him and popcorn was scattered on the floor. His curtains were pulled and the light was turned off, effectively shutting him away from the world behind his locked door. His headset was crooked and his face duly ached from yesterday, yet the pain was nothing compared to the black bruise on his stomach.

His avatar held out his hand impatiently as the rushees mumbled to themselves now that they were meeting in the crater again. As predicted, one of them didn't have one and they glanced around nervously. Good. Maybe Noah could create a challenge so that none of them passed. Then their alliance would be saved from this atrocity.

The half-orc was the first to give him a book, an anarchy sign emblazed on its cover. Then, the archer followed by the knight. Noah's bored gaze met the blob's and the human' human stuttered into their headset, an annoying sound with the default voice programmed, as they pulled out a book from a satchel hanging limply on their shoulder.

The blob's avatar shifted back and forth nervously until Noah pointed away from the crater, "You're dismissed."

They didn't respond verbally, instead simply moving away slowly like they wanted Noah to stop them before they left. As if he were going to ask an amatuer to stay. Good riddance. Scanning those left, he cleared his throat, "So you managed the first test. Don't get too excited. You're not guaranteed in yet.

"I want each of you to prove you can fight. Within the next ten minutes, choose an enemy to fight and bring them back here to spar." he waved them off, and soon they were too far from his avatar for their headset to be connected. Great. Now he was alone.

Just as he inhaled sharply in relief, a voice popped into his headset, "You know, you could at least try and be friendly with them."

Then Kanthor's avatar appeared next to him, teleporting from some unknown location. At she towered over him, he grumbled, " _Friendly_ isn't my forte."

"Obviously." she laughed, patting his avatar's shoulder. Seriously, the updates to this game made no sense. Who needed the ability to do that? What purpose did it hold? Then her grin widened, "You see the new Total Drama episode last night?"

"Yeah." Noah coughed, starting from the heat in his room. Not because he was afraid. He was never afraid. "It was as terrible as every other episode."

"You always say that." she snickered, glancing his avatar over. "You know, you remind me of one of the contestants."

"Uh huh." he nodded, trying to sound bored, feeling a bead of sweat go down the back of his neck, down into the collar of his sweater vest.

"The gay guy." her gaze went to the distance behind him, most likely searching for the rushees. "Noah Sterecra."

"Really?" he answered lowly, annoyed. That gay guy? Was that how people viewed his existence on the show? He was just the gay guy? And what's more annoying-Noah wasn't gay!

"Well, personality wise." she hummed, pulling on her dagger, which was strapped to her belt. "Since you're not gay and he is."

"And what makes you so certain he's gay?" Noah prodded, watching the first rushee come back, sliding down the crater with a small sheep in their arms that was tossing and turning in an attempt to gain freedom. The half-orc grinned, Joey, was it? It almost made him wonder-no. It couldn't be.

"Have you seen him?" she stepped back and giggled under her breath. Her avatar jutted out their hip femininely and she waved her hand dramatically. Noah needed to send a letter to ask the creator to explain how that improved the quality and content of the game. "He's all 'No thank you, honey. _Whatever_ you want.' And he says it just like that, too. Just like a gay guy!"

"What are you talking about?" Joey wondered, putting the sheep down. His voice was stuffy-Noah knew that voice. But no. He couldn't be.

"Total Drama." Kanthor shrugged, yet another unnecessary 'improvement' that wasted data space. "And careful with that sheep. Don't let it run off."

"Freaks." Joey grunted, gripping the sheep by the scruff of its neck. "Only dweebs like that show."

"And only nerds play massive multiplayer online role player games." she retorted, her tone vicious and quick to put the rushee in his place.

" _Whatever_." Noah sighed to himself, eyeing his room carefully. He would have to clean it later. Joy.

"Whoa! How'd you do that?" Kanthor gave a slight gasp. "You sound just like him!"

"Like who?" the default voice made him sit taller on the floor, annoyance straightening his spine as the sound reminded him of long nails scraping across a chalkboard. No. He would prefer the chalkboard to this. Still, the human wobbled down the crater, holding the archer by the arm. She coughed nervously, "Heh, are we allowed to spar each other?"

"Sparring? That's not part of…" Kanthor frowned, gripping her dagger. She scoffed, "Nitro! I told you make sure they didn't kill each other!"  
"No. You said I couldn't kill them. There's a difference." Noah mumbled. "And yes. You can spar each other. Why should I care if you slaughter each other?"

"Don't mind him. He's just touchy." Kanthor growled lowly, motioning at human, Ceja, and the knight, Cloud. "Just go ahead and spar."

"You're Nitro? Like _the_ Nitro?" Ceja gasped into her headset, causing Noah to cringe once again. Then, she turned to Kanthor, wide-eyed, "Doesn't that make you-"

"Kanthor. Great. We've had our introductions." he cut in before Kanthor could reply. "Now hurry up and slit each others' throats."

"Right now?" Cloud stood up, shaking Ceja's grasp of him.

"No. Please, murder each other after Diwali." he grumbled, stepping back so that he was out of their way.

"Excuse Lieutenant Sarcasm." Kanthor glanced around at the three. Where was the fourth? No. Noah didn't care. If the fourth didn't show, he would be eliminated and that was what he wanted. "Just go ahead."

Cloud nodded, his armor clinking clumsily as he drew his sword. Bouncing on his heels, he waited for Ceja, but when she didn't draw her weapon, he charged impatiently. With a heavy swing, he tried to hit her, but was knocked back when his sword was met with a small scabbard. Noah's eyes widened in surprise. Huh. So Ceja was able to hold her own? Big deal.

Cloud struggled to regain his strength due to the weight of his sword, and was left open when Ceja stepped in, scabbard out as she slashed at him. Most of the swings glanced easily off his armor, but his health gradually fell as he rose, gripping his sword as he raised the blade over his head. A flash appeared in Ceja's eye, a special attack of some sort as she moved her hand toward his chest, preparing to stab as he brought down his sword.

"I'm here!" the archer came barreling down the crater, empty-handed as Cloud and Ceja stopped mid-strike. His feet skidded on the gravel of the artificial turf, tearing at the ground as he unshouldered his bow. In a swift motion, he pulled out an arrow from the quiver on his back and grinned. Before Noah could digest what he was doing, he released the arrow and it flew at him, cutting his cloak. He heard Kanthor gasp in the headset, but he pulled out the arrow hastily. Tossing it to the side, his health immediately replenished as he walked stiffly to the archer, sword in hand.

"Explain yourself." he growled, his grip becoming taut on his sword. The archer shuddered under his avatar's height, hands shaking so horrifically that he dropped his bow.

"Y-You said-erm...I-I cou-couldn't-" he stammered, trying to look anywhere but at Noah.

"Enough." Noah snarled, thrusting his sword forward into the archer. The avatar fell to the ground for a brief moment, then disappeared. Nothing more than a disgusting disgrace. He couldn't even bother to remember the idiot's name. He let out an angry sigh, "You three are fine for today. Show up tomorrow at noon or you're eliminated."

With that, he logged out and turned off his headset. His hands were impatient and irritated as they put the equipment on the Ybox, messily placing the blanket on top. That ungrateful cretin! Noah was doing him a favor and he tried to defeat his avatar!

* * *

 **Okay. So I've run out of creativity. My writing juice is low and I can't buy more at Wal-mart because I'm broke. That's my lame excuse for taking so long to update. But I'll keep writing, yet no promises how long it'll take.**

* * *

 **REVIEW because it really does help me write the chapters! It shows you people/aliens/monkeys/toasters actually care and want me to continue! AND TRENT WANTS YOU TO REVIEW.**

* * *

 **Signing out**

 **Sir Ben Evans IV of Kanto**


	6. Beef and Interviews

**Chapter six!**

* * *

 **Haftungsausschlusses: Mir gehört nichts!**

* * *

 _ **The next day. Lunch time.**_

* * *

"That's disgusting." Noah scoffed, using his fork to take a bite of the spaghetti on his plate. But as he swallowed, he felt like throwing up as he watched Owen eat yet another hamburger. Normally, the cafeteria didn't serve burgers more than twice a week, but Chris had bought too much in the last shipment and he was too cheap to let it go to waste.

"No, it's not. You're the one eating spaghetti without meatballs." Owen frowned, mid-bite - giving Noah a perfect view of the grounded beef the large boy had been chewing. Had he mentioned he felt like puking? "That's pretty disgusting."

"The absence of meat doesn't make a meal disgusting." he pinched the bridge of his nose with his other hand, trying to think of anything but the smell of that burger. This must be how Bridgette feels constantly - watching everyone eat something so repulsive.

"I dunno why you're so against burgers - I mean, look at it!" Owen swallowed what he had previously been chewing and put down his burger in front of Noah onto the cafeteria table. He flipped off the top bun and began dissecting it, placing the different ingredients to the side as he pulled them off the hamburger. "There's lettuce and tomatoes and onions and ketchup and mustard and pickles and-"

"Stop." he cut him off harshly, trying to calm his stomach as he pushed the plate of spaghetti away from himself. Thanks to Owen, he wasn't hungry anymore. Lovely.

"Are you gonna finish that?" Owen glanced down at the plate Noah had pushed away, his mouth watering. Human garbage disposal.

"No." he leaned back into his chair, glancing around the cafeteria as Owen pulled the plate to his side of the table.

These people could certainly hold a grudge.

It seemed the other losers were trying to isolate him - much without avail considering Owen wouldn't leave Noah's company as long as there was food for him. It was noon and everyone had managed to fill the other half of the room, eating it their meals as few shot him withering glares.

This was concerning for two reasons. Reason one being that it had been two days now since the party. Most group grudges don't last more than a few hours - so everyone should have put this behind themselves. Although, Noah didn't care. He was never one for group discussions, even when they revolved around him.

Reason two was _who_ was glaring at him. Specifically, the Drama Brothers. They were sitting at a table, surrounding themselves with their so-called fans. The way Justin would give him once-overs as Sadie and Katie hung onto his arms, how Cody kept mumbling nervously to Harold as the redhead ranted, spit spraying out from his mouth as he talked. Trent was the only one that seemed to have gotten over the ordeal, although Noah couldn't be certain by the way he was nodding to Harold, silently listening to the rant.

"You sure you don't want any, Little Buddy?" Owen poked him in the shoulder, pointing to the plate of spaghetti.

"Yes." he rolled his eyes. "I believe the saying is 'Have at it.'"

"Cool!" Owen grinned, taking his dissected burger and he tore chunks of the patty, tossing the bits onto the plate. God. Did he really need to do that? Still, he took the fork on the plate - the fork Noah had previously been using - and began eating the meal happily.

"Heya!" a tray plopped next to Owen's patty-less burger, a large plate of salad and a carton of juice on it, and Izzy sat down. Her grin faded as she glanced from Owen to Noah, slightly concerned. "Why's Noah green?"

"I'm not green." he mumbled, moving his gaze away from the spaghetti to glare at her.

"Well - you do look like you're gonna be sick." Owen pointed out, talking with his mouth open. Great. He wanted to see chewed up beef in Owen's mouth again.

"Hey, Owen." Izzy jabbed the boy in the gut softly with her elbow, focusing on his meal. "What'cha eating?"

"Spaghetti." he answered, shoveling another bite down his throat. "I used my burger patty to make meatballs - neat, right?"

Her face dropped, suddenly concerned as she processed something. Noah didn't try to understand her - some days she was a whack job that was as nutty as a ten-ton bag of pecans smothered in peanut butter encased in a cashew the size of China, and other days she was 'Brainzilla,' who was calm, collected, and logical. Simply put, she had her moods. And he wasn't Owen - Noah was perfectly fine with staying out of the way of Izzy's _moods_.

Her eyes light up with realization, then she stared at Owen crossly, "Owen, be nice!"

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Owen mumbled, hamburger spraying from his mouth as he talked, _all over Noah_.

God. Oh, God. It was moments like this he wondered why he bothered tolerating Owen. Shakily, Noah stood up and bits of burger fell off of this sweater vest. He took a deep breath, wiping slimy meat from his face as a sickening feeling started to twist his stomach. Heat rushed to his face as he glanced feverishly around the cafeteria, his gaze focusing on a trash can by the door.

His feet started moving, slowly at first, but as the feeling in his gut grew, he went faster until he was sprinting to the trash can. His hand went to touch the rim of the barrel, but his breath clung in his throat - there was hamburger meat all over his hand from wiping his face earlier.

He puked.

There is no easy way of saying it other than that - he puked into the trash can. It was violent and rather loud as half-eaten noodles were thrown up in disgusting chunks as he double overed the barrel, his hands bracing the rim.

After a minute, his stomach stopped revolting against him and he stood up, trying to catch his breath as he flicked the burger meat off his hand into the trash can. Sweat dripped down the back of this neck and his hair was sticking to his forehead. His throat burned with that awful feeling after throwing up and he nor the trash can smelled to fresh right now.

Behind him, he heard a chair screech against the tile floor and he realized - the cafeteria was silent. There was no lunchtime chatter. He could feel the stares on his back - _everyone_ was watching him.

Then, the sharp click of flip-flops hitting tiles toward him. No. Noah didn't turn to meet

their stares, but bolted through the door instead. His shoes hit the soft carpet floors in the hallway as he heaved from exhaustion. He wasn't used to this much cardio.

The footsteps behind him became muffled, but the person following him began running. He tried to run faster - if he could get to his room, he could hide with his video games. But it was useless. He was shoved onto the wall, warm hands holding him in place.

Note to self. Consider purchasing the Xii Fitness Game and board for his Xii system upon returning home after this season.

"What's wrong?" he looked up with a bored expression to see Justin's smug smirk. "Stomach problems?"  
"Isn't that too much information?" Noah tried to shrug off Justin's grasp, but scowled when the other boy tightened his hold on him. "Don't you have better things to do?"

"Of course. I'm not a nobody like you." Justin smiled pleasantly at him, letting go of Noah. "But the Drama Brothers aren't done with you. Or did you think a swat on cheek was all the punishment you deserved?"

Before Noah could respond, Justin's smile widened as he stepped back. As he moved away, he stuck his hand out to touch a spot on Noah's throat and he pressed firmly. Noah's knees buckled as a sharp pain traveled through him, Justin pulling away with satisfaction as Noah hit the floor.

Justin turned on his heel as Noah struggled to regain his breath. With a small wave, Justin called back to Noah as he reentered the cafeteria, "Just kept that in mind, alright?"

* * *

 _ **Noah's room! Hours later!**_

* * *

"Enter." Noah coughed into his headset, his throat aching still. He had taken a shower and changed into a fresh pair of shorts and one of his white undershirts before sitting on the floor to his room, a blanket hanging over his shoulders as he stared blankly at the television screen. The lights were turned out and the curtains had been pulled, creating every gamer's dream setting for spending the day away to play video games.

"A-Alright." Cloud stumbled into the small cave, nearly tripping over a rock and skewering himself with his sword. Noad had found this cave by accident after playing fifty-three hours of the game, and due to its seclusion, had chosen it for the rushees' interview spot and had marked it on their maps.

"You ready?" Noah sighed, his throat itching in discomfort. He squirmed a bit where he was sitting - he couldn't shake the embarrassment of earlier off. They were probably laughing at him right now and - and - _and_ -

He needed a plan. He needed to get back at them. But how? Geoff wasn't planning any parties because of Noah's last plan, so he would have to get his revenge some other way. But first - how did he want his revenge?

"Yep." Cloud answered, gaining Noah's temporary attention. He really hated rush week. It was unnecessary and the others could do it without him, but no - Kanthor dragged him into doing this every time. And as much as he hated rush week, he _really_ hated interview day. It was repetitive enough to drive him bonkers, but today was his best chance to getting rid of all three of the amateurs.

"Answer the questions to the best of your ability." Noah pulled a small crumpled paper from the pocket in his shorts, flattening it out so he could read his scribbled handwriting. He scanned it, rereading the questions before picking one. "Why should we let you into the Anarchists?"

"I'm well-rounded in several types of games, I know how to code in C++, and I'm looking to have fun." Cloud replied without hesitation, much to Noah's annoyance. Did he get his answers from an interview forum?

"What's your highest goal in life?" Noah leaned back, laying down on the carpet.

"I want to defeat Culgan Lea in Dragon's Assassin." Cloud answered, just as hastily as before. Really? His highest goal in _life_ was to kill a videogame character? And more importantly - how was Noah supposed to interview him if he already knew all the questions? Then, he smirked as an idea hit him.

"How do you plan to reach that goal?" he grinned, adjusting his headset as he waited for Cloud's response.

"Ah, well," Cloud mumbled, struggling to find a response. Good. It seemed Cloud was prepared for surface questions, but he couldn't handle anything in depth. Noah could use this against him. "I'm going to level up until I'm strong enough to fight him."

"And what if you suddenly realize you can't complete your goal?" Noah shot back, amused at how awkward the knight was getting. "What then?"

"I'll - uh - change - no, I'll f-fight," Cloud stammered, obviously confused how the interview had turned south so quickly for him. "I-I'll fight-"

"Really? That's fascinating." Noah grinned smugly to himself. The interviews wouldn't get rid of the rushees immediately, but it would help Noah convince the others that neither of his final two rushees were worth their alliance. "We're done here. Send in the next person on your way out."

Cloud's avatar nodded and sighed in defeat as he left, walking around the rock that nearly tripped him earlier. Great. One down, two more to go.

Ceja was next, stumbling into the cave. As she neared Noah's avatar, she _did_ trip on the rock and fell face first onto the artificial floor. Noah scoffed as a small marker appeared above her, stating that the fall had caused damage to her health point total. Clumsy schmuck.

She laughed nervously into her microphone, causing Noah to cringe at how the default voice sounded. Still, she got up and hobbled over to him. Quickly, he read the list again before asking, "Why should I consider you?"

"Huh?" she cocked her head to the side, confused. "Oh! I'm v-very, uh, good at-"

"Stop." Noah sighed, hearing her stutter was worse than hearing her laugh. The questions on his list were all serious - he'd have to make up some questions to get her to calm down. "How do you feel about cheese?"

"W-What?" she stopped stuttering, but she was more confused now.

"How do you feel about cheese?" he repeated. Why was he taking pity on her? He could just ask the questions on his list and deal with her stammering, but no - he had to be nice. At least her reaction was amusing.

"It's okay, I guess." she shrugged. "I have a difficult diet, so I don't eat a lot of it."

"Is that so?" he frowned. A difficult diet? That was a strange answer, but it was a strange question. "Have you ever checked out your brother?"

"What kind of question is that?" she asked indignantly. "And I'm an only child."

"Must be nice." he rolled his eyes, flopping onto his stomach.

"Hm?" Ceja stepped back, almost falling back on the rock. "How many siblings do you have?"

"I'm the youngest of nine." Noah groaned at the thought of them. His older siblings were as tiresome as his parents. "I've had more wet willies, noogies, and wedgies than should be legal."

She giggled, "Oh. Wow. Talk about a full house, huh?"

"Yeah." he mumbled, annoyed again. Did she really have to laugh? Did she not hear how awful it sounded? "Who would win a fight between spinach and kale?"

"Uh…" Ceja rocked back and forth on her feet. "The spinach."

"How racist of you. But that's correct." he smirked, propping himself up with his arms. "Final question. Would you be willing to do me some special favors?"

"Sure." she answered rather quickly, causing Noah to flush. She couldn't mean, right? "What kind of favors are we talking about?"

Oh. She didn't get his joke. Go figure. And thank God.

"Nevermind. Send in the next person." he sighed. Why weren't people smart enough to understand his wit?

She nodded, still confused. And of course, she fell over the rock, taking another hit to her health. Clumsy schmuck. She got up hastily, running out of the cave quickly.

Joey came in next, swagger in his step as he went up to Noah without the difficulty the others had displayed. But Noah wasn't about to let that faze him. He opened the paper and asked, "What can you contribute to the Anarchists?"

"My skill. What else?" Joey laughed. But instead of stopping where the others had for the interview, he kept going until he was too close to his avatar.

"Would you mind moving back?" Noah frowned, why was this idiot so familiar?

"Yes." Joey shrugged, not bothering to step back. Instead, Noah was forced to step backwards.

Joey didn't seem to understand and stepped forward, closing the space between them. "What do you expect to learn if you join the Anarchists?"

"Battle experience." he smiled. Noah paused, this boy thought he had the upper hand in the interview. He was cocky and smug - so Noah could end the interview at any time he wished.

Noah turned off the Ybox and his headset, covering it up with his blanket. There. He couldn't help but feel satisfied - Joey was going to regret doing that. All three of the rushees left were poor choices for the alliance and Noah couldn't get rid of any of them today, but he would be able soon enough.

 _Ping_!

Noah's computer made a soft sound, signaling that he had received an email. He groaned as he stood and lazily made his way to the computer, turning on the monitor. Typing on his keyboard, he searched his email quickly until he saw the message. He scowled.

It was from home.

Yet another message from his family. He wasn't going to read it. He never did. It was time consuming and he would be home soon so they could just lecture him then. He wasn't about to be lectured via email while at the Playa De Losers.

Noah leaned away from the computer and glared around his room until his eyes set on the chemistry set under his bed. The methylene blue was still in there, along with several other chemicals and -

He had an idea. Yes. That would do nicely. He had a plan, a way to get revenge on the others.

What time was it? Three in the afternoon? Good. He had still had time. So he grabbed the chemistry set and opened it, grabbing a small bottle before smirking.

Now all he had to do was go down to the kitchen.

* * *

 **And done! I dunno if I'm gonna write the next chapter immediately or just graze the fandom grass. I'm still burnt out. Pretty sure it's obvious in the chapter.**

 **And yes, I am have fun with all the foreshadowing I'm doing. (Hint, hint, guys…)**

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 **REVIEW. Trent may murder Noah in his sleep if I get bored, so REVIEW!  
**

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 **Signing out**

 **Sir Ben Evans IV of Kanto**


	7. Nom nom nom, cake!

**Okay, so apparently, I decided to graze the fandom grass for a long time. Sorry? And this chapter is only two scenes long (I try to make my chapters three scenes long each), but I was satisfied with them. Honestly, I need to plan this out. I have a plot line, but it's nothing. It's basically: Noah and Cody get together. That's it. Not a whole lot. I usually plan things chapter by chapter, so I'll have to get my act together. Also, this chapter was a lot more boring in my outline. But when I was writing, I found this version to be more entertaining. So enjoy~!**

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 **Wenn Sie dies lesen, haben die kleinen Regenbogen Leute mich als Geisel genommen. Für das Protokoll, ich weiß nicht besitzen Total Drama. Ich weiß nicht viel Zeit vor dem kleinen Regenbogen Menschen zurück, so dass ich gehen ~! (Sarkasmus sollte nur mäßig genommen werden. Geben Sie auf eigene Verantwortung.)**

* * *

Perfect.

Noah smirked to himself as he crept outside the door where the cafeteria and kitchen emerged, the small bottle of chemicals in hand as he glanced inside to see Beth chewing on a wad of bubblegum. She was mixing cake mix in a large bowl with a whisk, batter splattered on her apron as she scowled silently to herself. She kept looking around, like she was expecting someone - causing Noah to jump back as his heart raced, his knuckles white as he clutched the bottle. She didn't see him, right? No, surely not.

Carefully, he peeked back into the kitchen. Beth had set down the bowl of cake mix, glaring at a clock that was neatly hung on the wall above the stove. Her expression grew confused as she licked the batter off the whisk, the slimy gunk getting caught in her braces as realization dawned in her eyes. Setting her jaw angrily, she threw the whisk - which was still covered in her saliva - back into the bowl of cake mix.

"DJ!" she snapped, slamming her palm on the counter. Unfortunately, this caused it to shake - knocking a glass container of milk over, causing it to spill on herself before it shattered on the tile floor. "Dang it!"

Noah jumped back, pressing himself to the wall as he heard her stomp to the door. Her shoes squished and squeaked on the floor and his breath caught in his throat - he had to act fast. One wrong action and it would be over.

As Beth stormed out from the kitchen, Noah stuck his scrawny leg out in front of her ankle, tripping her. But, what he didn't acknowledge was how he was nearly taken down with her as he gripped his free hand to keep his balance. Still, her glasses skidded across the floor and she squinted, "Huh?"

Noah hopped into the kitchen, his leg starting to bruise. But once again, he overestimated his athletic prowess as his shoe slipped on the spilt milk and he landed on his butt with a hard thud. The bottle was knocked out of his hand and skidded across the floor under the stove. Great. Now he would have to change his shorts _again_ and his butt would be bruised. Just what he needed.

"Who's there?" he heard Beth ask. "DJ? Is that you? Can you help me find my glasses?"

He drew a sharp breath as he crawled on the floor, ignoring how disgusting the milk felt on his forearms. Sticking his arm under the stove, he tried to grab the bottle but he couldn't see until his fingers grazed something. Without thinking, he snatched it and pulled it toward himself. It wasn't until halfway that he realized that his bottle shouldn't feel _warm and fuzzy_. But it was too late. There a tiny squeak as he squished a large ball of black fur in his hand. A rat.

" _Eep!_ " a sharp shierk escaped from his mouth as he flung the rodent across the room. It hit the counter with a sickening snap, trying to scurry away as it fell onto the floor but its leg was broken - causing it to fall back down. As Noah reached under the stove again to grab his bottle, guilt swelled in his chest. If the kitchen staff found it, they would kill it.

"Lindsay?" Beth called. _Lindsay_? He did _not_ sound like Lindsay. "Is that you?"

Scoffing, he got up and opened the bottle quickly. Pouring its contents into the cake mix, he picked up the saliva-covered whisk reluctantly to mix the chemicals into the batter. There was a thud outside the kitchen - Beth was getting up. He had to hurry. Shoving the empty bottle in his pocket, he glanced around the kitchen feverishly. Where could he go? The only exit was to the cafeteria, but his eyes met the air duct above the refrigerator- no. He couldn't. He really shouldn't. But it was either this or get caught by Beth.

He was about to walk to refrigerator, but his foot almost came down on the rat as it stumbled on its broken leg. He could leave it here to die, or take it with him. Before he could think about how disease-ridden it could be, he scooped it up and stuffed it into his pocket before rushing to the counter. Climbing it carefully, he tried to not knock anything over as he glared at the air duct. Taking a deep breath, he leaped from the counter to the refrigerator. His jump fell short and he was hanging onto its edge as the refrigerator wobbled underneath him. Pulse racing again, he heaved himself up and analyzed the air duct. There was four rusty screws holding its cover to the wall. If he had a screwdriver, he could get in easily, but all he had was an empty bottle and a rat.

Clenching his hand into a fist, he did something he'd seen Duncan do a couple of time. He punched the cover. Hard. The metal cut his knuckles and he bit his lip to prevent himself from howling. But the cover clattered to the ground and he threw himself inside as the refrigerator tumbled over, hitting the ground on its side.

Hopefully, there weren't any cameras in there. Otherwise, he would be the one paying Chris for all that wasted food and a new refrigerator. But he didn't have time to worry - he crawled down the air duct as the rat tried to wiggle out of his pocket. The employees hadn't fixed the hole in his ceiling yet from Cody's last visit, so he could easily escape to his room. From there, he could clean his hand and wait for Beth to finish his prank.

Why was it so dusty in the air ducts? And how did Cody deal with this? His nose itched as he passed over some of the resident's dorms. At each room, there was a small grate that allowed him to see into the room that shook as he passed by. His room wasn't much further - his dorm was in between the boys' and girls' rooms.

That's why Cody was in the ducts, he realized. Cody, the disgusting pervert he is, climbed into the air duct from his room at the end of the hall and was planning to spy on the girls from the safety of the cover. But the cover over Noah's room was old and tarnished, unable to hold Cody's weight as he passed by. So while Noah did the girls a favor by ruining the plans of a peeping Tom, he had to wonder - how often did Cody travel through the air ducts? If he did it on a regular basis, did Cody know about Noah's video games?

He swallowed nervously - his video games were one of his secrets at the Playa de Losers. At best, Cody would bug him constantly. At worse, he knew he was Nitro and his secret video game identity was ruined.

He shuddered as he crawled onward. His chest hurt and his breath became quick and shallow. His eyes widened. No! He didn't have time for this. He was almost there. Throat itching, his hand grazed the hole of his ceiling. He shut his eyes, bracing himself, as he crawled forward.

As he hit the floor with a thud, he was surprised how soft his carpet was as he tried to catch his breath. It was done. Yes, he was covered in dust, had broken nearly all of the kitchen, his hand was bleeding, and there was a disabled rat squirming out of his pocket, but his justice was planned.

As the rat scurried under the darkness of his bed, he sighed. All he had to do now was wait for Beth to set his prank into motion.

* * *

 _ **Later...**_

* * *

"Erm...Rat?" Noah mumbled, laying on his stomach as he reached under his bed with a bandaged hand. He moved awkwardly on the carpet in nothing but a pair of boxer briefs. After taking a shower for the second time today, he decided it simply wasn't worth it to put on another outfit since he didn't plan on leaving his room again and his curtains were always closed. Still, it didn't make him feel any less self-conscious.

He scowled, trying to snatch the rat under his bed. Stupid thing was still hiding from him - it should be grateful he was kind enough to save its stupid, worthless life. He could've just left it in the kitchen for either Beth or one of the employees to kill, but no. He had to save it.

"Fine. Be that way." he shrugged, rolling onto his back. As he sat up, he eyed his Ybox - and a bag of chips sitting on top of it. If that stupid rat would just come out, he was going to feed it his leftover popcorn and soda. Not a healthy meal, but it was better than nothing. "Starve for all I care."

He leaned over, snatching his controller and turned on the system. The television started with a shudder as he considered his options - he had already talked with rushees and he wasn't really in the mood for any other MMORPGs at the moment. But considering most of his games were online, that didn't leave him much to choose from. After a moment, he smirked as he entered _Grand Theft Aero_ into the system.

He sat there on the floor, playing his game so long that he had lost track of time. Had he been there an hour? All night? His legs were numb and his eyelids drooped down. He could save and quit now, but if he finished this mission before the timer ran out, he would jump on the Anarchists' scoreboard.

There was a soft tap on the door, so light that he merely twitched his brow at the noise. He had to be imaging things. No one visited him - and he was tired. He was probably delusional. So he continued his mission, forcing his avatar to raise a small pistol at a clerk. Then, there was another knock. Harder, and there was small voice mumbling something. He didn't know his delusions could be so realistic.

Pressing a button, he shot the pistol to _encourage_ the clerk into handing him the money in their register. As the clerk hastily tossed him a bag, Noah scowled as a harsh bang came from his door. Who would want to see him? Didn't they know better than to bug him?

Snatching the bag, he dashed out of the store and ran to the nearest car. Tossing out the driver, he started to drive away as he yelled, "It's unlocked."

"Kay?" came a hesitant reply, and the door swung open. Light streamed into the room, causing him to squint at the screen. "Why's it so dark in - Dude!"

"Hm?" he hummed, not bothering to look up at his visitor. Just a little bit further and he would be back at the hideout.

"Um - Why are you - ?" they stuttered. "Dude?"

"Yes?" Noah scoffed, annoyed. He paused the game, glancing up at his visitor. His eyes widened momentarily to find Cody standing his doorway, a plate of chocolate cake in his hands. It was hard to see in the dark, but he could've sworn Cody was blushing over something. No, he was exerted. Obviously. He played sports during the day, so that had to be why he was so red.

"Why are you in your underwear?" he laughed shyly, edging the hallway. It wasn't until then that Noah looked down - remembering his tired daze that he had decided not to change again after his small adventure through the air ducts. And Cody was here, staring at his boxer briefs with a plate of cake as he tried to relieve the awkward tension. "Not that I don't do that too! No, I totally get it, dude - sometimes I just sit around in my undies after a long game of kick -"

"Stop." Noah cut him off, feeling his face flush. Leave it to Cody to make this worse in an attempt to make it better. Then, his game made a small beep to remind him to save his progress. At this, his pulse raced for the umpteeth time today - Cody was in here. While his game was on. His only saving grace was that he was disconnected to the internet. "Why are you here?"

"Uh - Well, here." Cody grinned walking into his room to hand him the piece of cake. He fell back, sitting down next to him with a flop. As Noah analyzed the cake, Cody twiddled with his thumbs nervously, "I thought we could start over."

"Why's that?" Noah asked, not really paying much attention. This cake - was it Beth's cake?

"I was wondering if - you know, we could -" Cody mumbled, breaking eye contact with him. He glanced at the television, the light of the machine glowing on his face. From what he could tell, Cody's face was covered in cake.

"Could what?" he pressed. Couldn't he hurry up? The faster Cody left, the quicker Noah could get back to his game.

"Hang out some time?" he smiled, a bit too innocently. What was his deal? Noah knew better - Cody should still be mad at him from Geoff's party. Or at least, avoiding him like the bubonic plague to keep his 'cool cred' with Trent and the other guys.

"Sure." he answered curtly, giving him a suspicious brow. If Cody was up to something, it was better that he was closer to Noah - it would make it easier to plan a counterattack if Cody was thinking _he_ could play a prank on _him_. Geez. Did Cody think he was really that gullible?

There was an awkward moment that passed between them as Noah went back to staring at the cake and Cody tried to look at anything but Noah. Eventually, it was only natural for him to finally see the flashing television. His eyes widened and his grin widened, "Dude! It this the _Grand Theft Aero Seven_?!"

"Yeah." Noah nodded, putting down the cake beside him. It was too risky to eat it - and besides, chances were that it was Beth's cake. "Why?"

"What do you mean 'why?'" Cody gave a small gasp, reaching for Noah's controller. "It doesn't come out for another nine months!"

"I know a guy." he shrugged, moving the controller away from Cody's grimy, cake-covered hands to the other side of his lap. It was true - Noah did know a guy. One of his older brothers worked at the company and helped design it, giving it to Noah as a present for his birthday last year. "Where did you get this cake?"

"Huh?" Cody frowned, confused. He couldn't be this emotional, could he? God, he was like a hyperactive puppy. Not that he minded dogs, but that was no way for a teenage boy to behave. "Beth made it. It's pretty good - I had three pieces before coming up here."

"Three?" he took a sharp breath, glancing over Cody anxiously, then at the chemical set carefully hidden under his bed.

"Yeah! It tastes like bubblegum!" Cody nodded, trying to make another swipe at his controller. "I was about to eat the last piece, but I noticed you weren't there. So I brought it up here for you."

"Really?" he raised a brow, he had to be up to something. Cody couldn't have just forgiven, right? No one was that nice. He wouldn't forgive someone so quickly - and if Cody had, it took the joy out of the prank. No, Cody had to be up to something. He was planning a prank. And Noah wasn't that gullible.

Cody, still trying to reach Noah's controller, hadn't gotten his implied message to get his disgusting, cake-covered hands away from his game. He stretched, leaning over Noah's lap to grab it. He was pale, Noah noticed. Paler than usual - and while still blue-tinted, there was a green shade rising slowly but surely on his cheeks. Noah frowned, his body tensing under him as Cody stopped mid-way and hovered. His mouth twisted in pain, his hand flew to his mouth as he shuddered. He should've shoved the smaller boy off of him. But Noah sat in shock as he watched his prank backfire.

Cody puked. All over Noah.

Cody wasn't nearly as loud or violent as Noah had been this morning, but hot chunks of half-digested cake flew all over Noah's lap, onto his clean boxer briefs, his legs, his bare chest as vomit dribbled from Cody's chin. After his episode, Cody rolled over and clutched his stomach and moaned, "Dude…"

" _Yes_?" he hissed, trying to not strangle Cody's throat by clutching fistfuls of carpet. Three showers, more dirty laundry, and now he had to clean his carpet. Lovely. He loved to do work.

"I don't feel so good." Cody whined, sitting up. He stared at Noah bleary-eyed, not fully aware of the vomit covering Noah. Then, his eyes widened as he gasped, jumping up, "Oh, man! I-I'm sorr-"

"Go." Noah growled, closing his eyes. He shuddered as the puke dripped down his chest. "Leave. Now."

"But -"

"No. Go." Noah pointed to the door angrily, watching Cody give him a pitiful look before dashing away. Was this Cody's plan? No, it couldn't be. There was no way he could've known that Noah had slipped Ipecac syrup into the cake batter. He had to be up to something else.

But what? He didn't know - and while he wondered, something warm and fuzzy rubbed up against his bare not-covered-in-vomit foot, letting out a small squeak. Looking down, he saw the rat and scowled.

If he didn't know better, he would've sworn that wretched rodent was laughing at him.

* * *

 **I reached a new level of lazy today.** _**Grand Theft Aero?**_ **Really? Honestly, I was too tired to go make up another game title. And Ipecac syrup makes you vomit - it's not advised to use it since it can tear up your throat over time. But you know, I don't think Noah cares. Now does it have the same effect if you bake it? Probably not, but shhhhhhhhhh~cartoon logic, honey. Don't ruin the magic.**

 **A rat? I confused myself sometimes...I was thinking about Noah's dog...and I made a rat. I don't know. But, I need a name for it. So suggestions~! I'll have a poll up on my profile in a bit, so vote on there, guys! The name that gets the most votes will be the name of Noah's rat! The choices will be Noah Junior, James, Cole, and Fluffball. I'm kind of leaning toward Noah Junior, but you know, it's up to you guys. SO VOTE!**

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 **REVIEW, FAV, FOLLOW, PARTY WITH LITTLE RAINBOW PEOPLE! You know what to do~! There's a little button at the bottom of the screen that's waiting just for you to press! Come on! You know you want to!**

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 **Signing out**

 **Sir Ben Evans IV of Kanto**


	8. Tale of Trash Cans

**Chapter eight...Okay, so this is also only two scenes and it's not even that good. But I won't be able to write for a day or two since I have to take the ACT and exams throughout the next week. Until then, read away~!**

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 **For the record, this is fanfiction. I do not own anything.**

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' _THE QUIET LODGINGS of Doctor Manette were in a quiet street-corner not far from Soho-square. On the afternoon of a certain fine Sunday when the waves of four months had rolled over the -_ '

"Hey, Noah?"

' _On the afternoon of a certain fine Sunday when the waves of four months had rolled over the trial for treason, and carried it, to public interest and-'_

"Noah?"

' _-the waves of four months had rolled over-'_

"Dude?"

" _What_?" Noah hissed, snapping his book shut in frustration. All he wanted to do was recline on the beach chair beside the pool and read but no! Cody, of all people, had decided it would be a wonderful idea to bug him. So there the geek was, standing in front of Noah - effectively blocking out the morning sunlight in his swimsuit, a frisbee clutched tightly in one hand.

"Uh, well," Cody gave a nervous laugh, scratching the back of his head. "I wanted to apologize for last night."

"Uh huh." he glared up at him. Noah still didn't feel clean, despite scrubbing himself raw in the shower. "Lovely. Now why are still here?"

"Huh?" he frowned, puzzled. Then, he took a swift glance around the poolside of the Playa. "What do you mean?"

"Shouldn't you be asleep?" he scoffed, sitting up a bit in his chair. "It's only seven."

"I could ask you the same thing." Cody gave him a look, but Noah couldn't decipher it - annoyance? Confusion? Resentment? No, he didn't care. "You never get up until noon."

While that may be true - a product of continuous late night gaming - he wasn't about to tell Cody that. "I couldn't sleep."

"Oh. Really?" Cody perked up, grabbing a chair to sit next to him.

"Yes." Noah replied curtly. How could he get him to leave? All he wanted to do was read - and last night's prank should've allowed this. Considering it was chocolate cake, there wouldn't be too many people that would've refused - causing themselves to feel ill after digesting the chemicals he put in it. Up until a few minutes ago, Noah had been completely alone outside. Until Cody decided to join him. And as he glowered at him, Cody didn't seem to get the message. "I came out to read."

"Cool!" Cody grinned, shifting the frisbee from hand to hand. "What'cha reading?"

"Something by Charles Dickens." Noah sighed, opening his book. Maybe if he just left it at that, Cody would leave-

"What's that say?" he felt hot breath beating down on his neck and he froze, finding Cody hovering behind his shoulder and pointing at a word.

"Nothing much." Noah scowled, turning back to his book. He had no idea what word Cody was pointing at - the book didn't have any difficult words. If it was Lindsay asking him, then he wouldn't doubt her idiocy - but this was Cody. He should be intelligent enough to understand it.

"Hey." Cody leaned closer, his head brushing against his as he tapped Noah on the arm. "Can you read it to me?"

"Are you five?" Noah asked incredulously, his brow lifting theatrically. But as he gazed over at him, Cody seemed completely sincere as giddy hope glimmered in his eyes.

"I just thought-" Cody stopped himself, leaning away. A light blush appeared on his cheeks in embarrassment. "Nevermind. It was stupid."

"On the afternoon of a certain Sunday when the waves of four months had rolled over the trial for treason," Noah began, sighing. Maybe if he got this over with, Cody would get bored and leave. "and carried it, to public-"

"Can you start at the beginning?" he asked, leaning closer to Noah as he hugged the frisbee. Noah had half a mind to shove Cody away from him, but he shrugged it off as he flipped through the pages.

And so he began in a soft mumble, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair-"

"Hm?" Cody hummed, cocking his head to the side. "I can't hear you."

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times," he started again, much louder this time. The difference in volume caused Cody to recoil, leaning back into his chair as Noah continued. "it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief-"

"Gosh! What are you doing out here?" someone called, and they both looked up to see Harold, who was a much light tint of blue along with the other Drama Brothers, holding a towel as he walked out the building.

"Reading." Cody grinned at Harold, who glared at Noah bitterly. In return, Noah shot back a withering look of his own.

"Hmph." Harold grunted. "I'm not sure what Beth did to that cake, but it sure did a number on me."

"What do you mean?" Cody got up curiously, almost knocking his chair over as he stood. "Did you get sick too?"

"Yeah. I got sick all over my set. Now I can't record my beatboxing for my new album." Harold nodded stiffly, then gave Cody a peculiar stare. "Didn't you hear? Everyone got sick last night."

" _Everyone_?!" Cody gawked, his hand grabbing the frisbee again.

"Yeah. Or at least everyone who at the ate Beth's cake last night." he answered. Noah inhaled sharply, trying to ignore the cold sweat dribbling down the back of his neck. "She's beating herself up over it."

"Aw, man." Cody sighed, somehow actually upset over everyone's condition. "That stinks."

And while he and Harold chattered about the events that took place, Noah tried to focus on his book without avail. If his last prank, which he swore was fool-proof, got him in trouble, what of this one? He wasn't exactly sneaky in his execution.

All he could do was hope for the best. But he wasn't one for hoping.

* * *

 _ **A couple of hours later…**_

* * *

Book in hand, Noah walked down the hallway in silence toward his dorm. Upon reaching his door, he frowned. The knob looked odd - like the lock had been picked. No, who would break into his room? He always locked his room before leaving, but that was due to his paranoia that someone would snoop through his things. But as far as he could tell, someone had gotten past his lock.

Panic coursing through him, he turned the knob quickly and was surprised to find a weight pushing the door back. Hastily, he shoved the door and stormed in, immediately regretting it.

A large trash can was knocked over in his pursuit to get inside, most likely leaning against the door until he pushed it. At first, it struggled to tumble until Noah saw it - water. The trash can was filled nearly all of the way up with water and he jumped toward it, trying to stop it from falling over. But it was too heavy, spilling onto his floor, and more importantly, on his Ybox that was lying on the floor in front of the television.

Curse words came to mind as Noah's head stopped momentarily - but he calm down as he remembered the rice he saw in the kitchen yesterday. He could fix this. All he needed to do was steal the rice while the cafeteria was empty. Besides, this gave him the perfect excuse to avoid the rushees today.

A sharp squeak sounded to his side, so he turned toward his desk. His computer was on, an application opened, yet minimized, on its screen as that stupid rat scurried along the top of the monitor. But it was the empty bottle of Ipecac syrup that had been dug out of his trash can and placed neatly on his keyboard that worried him.

His pulse raced as he neared the computer slowly, opening the application. It was notepad, of all things, with a message typed out:

' _I puked all over my endorsements, thanks to you. You're dead, Noah. -Justin'_

Great. Justin picked his lock with that trash can, planning a simple prank until he went through his trash can, and found the empty bottle. Sighing, he opened up the Internet browser and loaded his email. In a short moment, he sent a message to Kanthor that his Ybox was broken and he wouldn't be able to attend to the rushees since he would have to spend today repairing the machine.

As the rat hovered closer to him, Noah scowled and knocked it off the monitor, As it hit the carpet with a thud, he felt guilt swell in his chest and nearly leaned down to grab it but it scurried off under his bed again. So he was left by himself.

The rice. He would need to get as soon as possible. As he left he made two mental notes to himself: invest in a sturdier lock for his door, and stop throwing his evidence into the trash can.

* * *

 **Ta-da! Ah, what is Noah going to do now? What's Justin planning? How much rice is Noah going to steal? What book was Noah reading?! Find out in the next chapter!**

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 **REVIEW, FAV, FOLLOW. Also, please VOTE for the rat on my profile!**

* * *

 **Signing out**

 **Sir Ben Evans IV of Kanto**


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